Hidden In Stardust
by PackLord4415
Summary: Just a first attempt at a fic. I think I have a pretty good story, but I am open to criticism. Working with Pop82 on this.
1. Prologue

Hidden in Stardust

Hello. Welcome to my first fic. I am working on it with a good friend of mine. He goes by pop82 on . Also, I apologize for the title, I used a name generator for it. I would appreciate any feedback.

As far as the time period for this fic, it will take place in the same time frame as Arc-V, however, only the events of 5D's have taken place. Therefore, the events of Zexal and Arc-V have not occurred, and also, Pendulum Monsters have not been created. Turbo Duels will also not be taking place, they still occur, there just won't be any as far as this fic goes.

We will also be using a modified ban list to use with this fic. Certain cards that are banned are treated as limited, and certain cards that are limited, are treated as Semi-Limited, and so on. Certain cards are left untouched (Like Chaos Emperor Dragon) and certain cards that are limited/unlimited are treated as banned (Dark Strike Fighter).

We will be using the official Team Duel Rules with a few modifications, like how banned, limited, and semi-limited cards are determined by player, not team, so you can have, for example, 2 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginnings, one in your's and your team mate's deck. Other modifications will be explained as they arise.

Also, all players will draw on their first turn.

Cards used in this fiction will not be limited to cards used before Zexal was released. All currently released cards, with the exception of Pendulum Monsters will be used.

One final point: The Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game and anime is copyrighted and owned by Konami. We do not, in any way, own rights to any of the cards in this fanfiction with the exception of the cards we have ourselves created.

Without any further ado: Enjoy

0

Prologue: Fun Times

0

In a world where the cards weren't real, duels weren't nearly as entertaining. The game was still popular, but was more or less only played by people who actually bought the cards and attempted to really learn how they worked. That was our world. There were no Duel Disks and the events that Yugi and Jaden performed existed only in a Cartoon named after the game.

What game you ask? Well that should be obvious, but for those of you who can't tell, the game is "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Or, as you might have heard it called: Duel Monsters. Well, that's enough of an introduction for now. I don't want to exposition you to death. Moving on.

0

Nashville, TN

Present Day

Final Round Local Team Competition

A group of people we're gathered around a table, trying to see the last round.

Both teams looked confident. On one side, there were two boys, about the same height. One was lanky and was the taller of the two (only by about an inch or two), and the other, being the shorter of the two was considerably heavier (by about 70 lbs or so). They both had about the same hair color, and eye color, and if one knew them at all, about the same personality too. They might as well have been twins, to any passerby. The taller one's name was Trey (he never gave his last name, and the only people in the room who knew it were his partner, and the guy at the registration counter.) The heavier of the two's name was Connor.

On the other side, sat a woman with bright red hair down to her back of average build and a taller man with shoulder-length brown hair. The woman's name was Amber, and the man's name was Charles.

"Well, it's time for the finals man," said Connor, "you ready?"

"Let's get this over with" replied Trey.

Trey said, "Hey Charles, Amber, do either of you have a quarter or something?"

"No, does anyone else have one?" Charles asked.

One of the spectators tossed a coin onto the game mat. Amber picked up the coin and said, "Thanks. Heads or tails?"

"Heads," said Connor.

She flipped the coin. It spun in the air and after it came down, landed on heads.

"Ok, so we go first," said Connor.

"I'll take the first move," said Trey.

(Trey & Connor: 16,000 ;; Amber & Charles: 16,000)

"I'll set four cards face down and end my turn," Trey said.

"My turn," stated Amber.

"I'll set one monster face down, and two cards face down in my Spell and Trap card zones."

"Stop for a moment. I activate my facedown card Artifact Ignition."

"What?" asked Amber.

"Artifact Ignition allows me to destroy 1 set Spell or Trap card on the field. And I will choose my face down Artifact Beagalltach. When destroyed during my opponent's turn by a card effect, he is Special Summoned to my side of the field and has an effect activate. I will summon him in defense position."

He placed the card on the mat, turned sideways to show that it was in defense mode (2100 DEF)

"Next, Ignition allows me to set one Artifact monster from my deck to my Spell and Trap card zone, so I will set Artifact Aegis from my deck. Now, Beagalltach's effect allows me to destroy up to two of my own set cards. I will destroy Artifacts Moralltach and Caduceus, who are also Special Summoned."

He placed Caduceus on the mat, turned sideways to show that it was in defense mode (2400 DEF), and he placed Moralltach straight up and down to show that it was in attack position (2100 ATK).

"Also, Moralltach allows me to destroy one card on your side of the field, so I will destroy your face down monster."

"What? That blows," she complained, moving her monster (Morphing Jar) to the Graveyard, "I end my turn."

"My turn." said Connor, "I activate the Black Whirlwind Spell Card. Now if I ever Normal Summon a Blackwing, I can add another Blackwing monster to my hand with less Attack Points. Now I Summon my Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame in Attack Mode."

He placed the card on the mat in the Attack Mode position. (1800 ATK)

"I activate my face down: Bottomless Trap Hole, which removes it from play," said Amber.

"Oh. Ok, then," he said, moving his Shura to his banished pile, "Well, since I still technically summoned it, I can use the effect of my Black Whirlwind, moving my Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North to my hand.

"Next, I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

"My turn," said Charles, "I activate my Gates of Dark World Field Spell, and I remove my Stardust Dragon in my Extra Deck from play to Special Summon my Malefic Stardust Dragon."

He placed it on the field. (2500 ATK)

"Next I activate my Dark World Dealings, meaning my opponent and I both Draw and Discard one Card."

He and Connor drew and discarded one card.

"The card I just discarded was my Grapha, and when he's discarded, I can destroy one card on the field, like your partner's Beagalltach."

"In response, I use my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy my partner's face down card," said Connor.

"Thanks Connor," said Trey, "Since my Artifact Aegis was destroyed during my opponent's turn, he is Special Summoned to my side of the field in Defense Mode. (2500 DEF) My Beagalltach is still destroyed, but now I have an even stronger monster in his place, and my other monsters cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects, and Caduceus allows me to draw one card because an Artifact monster was special summoned during my opponent's turn."

"You really shouldn't worry about his backrow, after all, he gets rid of it so very very fast," quipped Connor.

"Fine. I set one card face down, and attack your Moralltach."

Connor looked at his partner, with a question and Trey shook his head. Trey put his monster in the graveyard.

(T&C: 15600 ;; A&C: 16000)

"I end my turn."

"My turn," said Trey.

"And with it, I pay 1000 Life Points to activate Skill Drain."

(T&C: 15600 ;; A&C: 15000)

Trey frowned and drew a card.

"I will set four cards and end my turn."

"Ok. My turn then," said Amber, drawing a card.

"I activate Double Cyclone, which allows me to destroy Spell or Trap card my opponent controls and one Spell or Trap card I control. So, I will destroy your Skill Drain as well as my face down Artifact Beagalltach. I'm sure you remember what he does?"

"Destroy your face downs?" she replied.

"Exactly. Since he was destroyed during your turn, I can Special Summon him (2100 DEF) and use him to destroy my face down Artifact Failnaught. Failnaught is then also Special Summoned (2000 ATK) and his effect allows me to return 1 Artifact monster, like my Moralltach, from my graveyard and set him in my Spell/Trap card zone. Also, my Artifact Caduceus allows me to draw two cards. Then I activate my facedown Artifacts Unleashed, which allows me to select two Artifact monsters on my side of the field, like Beagalltach and Failnaught, and perform an Xyz summon to bring forth Artifact Durendal (2400 ATK). Which also means that Caduceus allows me to draw yet another card. You can go now."

"Great. Thanks so much. I summon my Fabled Raven (1300 ATK). With his effect, I discard 3 cards, giving him 2500 ATK, and making him LV 5."

"No, you don't discard anything. I activate Artifact Durendal's effect, and remove one Xyz material to change your Raven's effect to 'Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls.'"

"But you only have one!" she declared.

"Exactly. So, you destroy my Moralltach who comes back and his effect destroys your partner's Malefic Stardust Dragon and Caduceus allows me to draw another card."

The other team sat there in silence for a moment, with the crowd snickering. Then Charles said:

"You're a dick, you know that?"

"Yes, yes I am." Trey replied.

"Well, since plan A fell through, I'm going to use plan B: Card Destruction. Now you and I both discard our hands and draw new ones," said Amber.

"That works for me," replied Trey.

"...Whatever. I just Discarded my Fabled Krus and Fabled Gallabas. Now Krus's effect activates, allowing me to special summon my Gallabas back to the field (1500 ATK). Next, I activate Gallabas's effect, discarding one card and destroying your Artifact Moralltach. Next, my Gallabas attacks Durendal!"

"Um, why?" asked Trey.

"Because, I use the effect of my Honest, discarding him to boost his Attack by 2400."

Connor looked at his partner again. Trey nodded.

"I activate my face down: Mirror Force!" said Connor.

"SERIOUSLY?!" shouted Amber.

Connor just smiled.

She put her cards in the Graveyard, and whispered "I end my turn," and a few words that the others couldn't quite make out.

"My turn," said Connor, "I Summon Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind (1300 ATK), and with Black Whirlwind I move Blackwing - Kochi the Daybreak to my hand. Next I'll Special Summon two Blackwing - Bora the Spears to the field (1700 ATK)x2. Now my three monsters attack you directly."

(T&C: 15600 ;; A&C: 10300)

"Next I'll place one card face down, and Synchro Summon Blackwing Armor Master (2500 ATK), and I end my turn."

"My turn," said Charles, "first, I Summon, Beiige, Vanguard of Darkworld (1600 ATK 1900 ATK), and send it back to my hand to Summon Grapha, Dragon Lord of Darkworld (2700 ATK 3000 ATK)"

"And I activate my face down, Bottomless Trap Hole. I believe you know what that does."

"Yeah, yeah, I do. I activate my Field Spell's effect, banishing my Beiige, Discarding my Broww, to draw one card, and due to my Broww's effect, I draw another. I summon Tour Guide From the Underworld (1000 ATK) and with its effect…"

"I activate Durendal's effect. By detaching his last Overlay Unit, I change your Tour Guide's effect to 'Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls.-"

"I hate you," Charles said, as Connor got rid of his Spell, "I end my turn with one facedown."

"Fine, my turn," said Trey, "I draw. I will activate Cards from the Sky. I banish Artifact Caduceus from my hand to draw two I will activate Pot of Duality. So, I excavate Artifact Labrys, Artifact Achilleshield, and Magic Cylinder. I will return Achilleshield and Labrys to my deck and add Magic Cylinder to my hand. Then I set four cards from my hand and end my turn, since I can't conduct my Battle Phase due to Cards from the Sky."

"My turn," said Amber, "...Pass."

"Over to me," said Connor, "I summon Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North (1300 ATK), and with it's effect Summon my other Bora from my graveyard in defense mode (800 DEF). I then tune my Blizzard and my Bora in Defense to summon Blackwing Armed Wing (2300 ATK). Now, since the number of Dark Attribute cards in my graveyard is exactly 3, I can summon Dark Armed Dragon (2800 ATK).".

At this point, realizing that there wasn't much they could do, they began to quake in fear.

"Now I activate his effect, and remove my Gale from play to destroy your Tour Guide."

Charles moved his last line of defense to the Graveyard.

"Now, they all attack you directly."

(T&C: 15600 ;; A&C: 1000)

"That 400 damage you did at the beginning of the duel doesn't seem like so much now, does it?" said Trey.

"Oh, will you shut up?!" said Charles, "I banish my Stardust Dragon to summon another Malefic Stardust Dragon (2500 ATK). Then, I use Gates to banish my Broww, discard Grapha and one of your face downs. specifically, that one."

He points to the one directly behind Aegis.

"Then I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the middle one! Then I summon Snoww, Unlight of Darkworld, and bounce him to summon Grapha from my Graveyard (3000 ATK). Next I overlay them both to summon Number 22: Zombiestien!"

He slammed the card on the table in Attack Mode. (4500 ATK)

"Now I attack your Dark Armed Dragon!"

(T&C: 13900 ;; A&C: 1000)

"Bet you're scared now huh?! I end my turn."

"Not really. I draw," said Trey, "I Overlay my Artifact Aegis and my Artifact Caduceus to summon Number 61: Volcasaurus. I detach my Caduceus to activate his effect. I destroy your Number 22: Zombiestein and you take 4500 points of damage. I end my turn. Good duel.."

(T&C: 13900 ;; A&C: 0)

Amber and Charles, both frustrated with losing the duel without being able to do much, simply packed up their cards and walked away. Connor and Trey collected the $50 in prize money and packed up their cards as well.

0

(Later, while Connor and Trey were heading home)

"Well, that was fun," said Connor.

"You bet," Trey replied.

They kept walking along the road. They lived in the same direction, so they walked home together. Even though it was almost summer in Nashville and almost 85 degrees, they were having no trouble with it.

They made an excellent team. Trey was the one who kept their opponents hyped, making them make rash moves, and while Trey kept them occupied, Connor would exploit the holes in their opponent's strategy that Trey caused by making them focus on him.

And just because they worked well together, didn't mean they couldn't duel alone. Both of them were excellent in the game, having put long hours into studying not just their own cards, but all cards, learning as much as they could, until they knew every card in the game. They knew so much, that whenever there was a dispute over a ruling or effect, both sides would come to see who was right from none other than these two. debates between the two were a sight to behold, as both would pull out rulings so obscure and confusing that most people didn't even realize were rulings.

They eventually came to Trey's house, just as the sun was setting, and the streetlights we're coming on.

"Hey man, it's getting late, you wanna stay over?' asked Trey.

"Eh, sure, why not. It's not like I have anything to do at home," Connor replied.

"Cool. Right this way."

The pair went to his front porch, and we're about to walk in the door, when Connor looked down.

"Huh?"

"What is it Connor?"

"It looks like a card," Connor said, picking it up.

"What is it?"

"Well it looks like an Interdimensional Matter Transporter, but there's no card text, see?"

"You're right, it's just the picture, and the Trap Card symbol."

"Weird. Wait, isn't this how they do it in the show?"

"Yeah, you're right. Why is this here?"

"I don't know…"

As they continued to look and ponder its presence, the card began to glow.

"Whoa! What's going on!?" Connor exclaimed

The glow got brighter, and Connor dropped the card, and it landed right side up, just like a Trap Card would. The glow got even brighter, and the impossible happened. The pair found themselves face-to-mechanical-face with the machine itself: Interdimensional Matter Transporter.

"Is that…?" Connor asked.

"I think so…" Trey replied.

Suddenly, it lit up.

"Oh, god. Is it activating?" Connor asked

"It is! Where do you think it goes?" asked Trey in response.

"I don't know, but I want to find out."

"You sure about this?

"You bet."

They both grabbed the device as it lit up, and the pair became covered in light, and then both they and the machine vanished into thin air.

CHAPTER END


	2. Chapter 1

0

Chapter 1: Wait, Where are We?

0

Side Note: Yes; we are aware that an "Interdimensional" Matter Transporter could not actually take someone or something to a different dimension. However, since there is no card labeled the "Intradimensional" Matter Transporter, we used what we could. It is simply a plot device, so please don't make a comment on it. Also, the reason this chapter came out so fast is that I already had it written up. After the next couple, the chapters will come out more slowly.

0

Imagine falling. That helpless feeling of moving without any control in a way you're not sure you want to go. Now imagine that you can't see. There is no light. No color. Not black, but absolutely no color, and no sound, save the sound of rushing wind and your own screams. Finally, pain. Intense, nearly unbearable pain. That is what the two of them suffered in the portal going to their destination. They couldn't even hear their own thoughts.

With no end in sight they kept falling. They didn't even slow down, so much that eventually it seemed like they were being pulled to their destination, dragged to it like two opposite ends of a magnet, only to stop when they finally collide.

And suddenly, it was over. They were lying on the cool pavement, staring up at the sky, unable to get their eyes to focus. They heard a voice, muted, as if it came from far away. Suddenly, a shadow came across them. Finally, through the impossible haze of pain they realized they were looking at a girl. She kept shouting something they couldn't make out. At last, just before they lost consciousness completely, they were able to make out what she was saying, "Are you alright? What happened? Where did you come from?", and then, to someone else, "Call an ambulance!"

0

A rush of pain. Fading in and out of consciousness, seeing only the concerned faces of the paramedics. The blaring sound of the sirens as they were rushed to the hospital. A strange sensation that they had met the woman from earlier, despite having no recollection of her. Then, everything fading to black. Waking up in a hospital bed with IVs in their arms. Panicking, unable to control their bodies due to the painkillers. Heart monitors blaring. Nurses rushing in, a cooling sensation spreading through them. Everything fading. And the never ending pain that was their only constant companion. This is what they went through on the ride to the hospital and while at the hospital. Dimensional travel was not meant for humans.

0

Finally, they woke up. Trey and Connor sat up in their beds both completely unaware of where they were. A nurse came in and smiled. "You are finally awake! You gave us quite a scare. The young woman that called us said you just suddenly appeared on the ground, but your injuries were consistent with that of a fall and ..."

Trey broke in, "I'm sorry, but where are we? And how long were we unconscious?"

"Yeah, and, uh, who are you?" Connor continued.

"Well, you're in the hospital …" the nurse started.

"Well that much is obvious," Connor interrupted, "How about something we can't tell from just looking around?"

"Connor, be nice," said Trey.

"You are in a hospital in Neo Domino City. You were brought here after you were found on a sidewalk. You've been unconscious for 3 days," she said.

The two fell silent. Then Connor spoke up.

"That's not possible! Stop screwing with us and tell us where we are!" Connor screamed.

"I did! You're in a hospital! You've been unconscious for three days, and you're in Neo Domino City!" she replied patiently.

"Connor, calm down! You're right this is impossible, we were just in Nashville, how could we be in Neo Domino City?"

"Yeah, and if we are in Neo Domino, then why can we understand what you're saying?! Neo Domino is in Japan!" Connor continued.

Trey looked at Connor strangely, and said, "Connor, you speak Japanese."

"You can understand what she is saying because she is speaking English," said a voice in the doorway, "Let me talk to them," she said to the nurse.

The nurse walked out of the room, and the girl walked up to the two. She was about five and a half feet tall and had green eyes and blonde hair that came down to the middle of her back.

When she walked in, Connor turned white as a sheet. Then one moment later his face turned red as blood, and started shaking in rage. It took a few more seconds for him regain some of his composure, but he was still mad.

"Hi, I'm Maxine Whitley, but please call me Max. I found you both. I'm also from America. I was wondering where you came from. One moment there was nothing, then all of a sudden you guys just appeared on the ground. Where did you come from? And….. Why are you staring at my arm?"

"Is that a duel disk?!" Trey asked, "I've never seen one in real life before."

"What are you talking about? How can you never have seen a duel disk before?"

"This may seem kind of odd, but I don't think we are from this world," Trey said.

"Uh, what now?" she asked.

"Where we come from, Neo Domino doesn't exist, and neither do duel disks. Besides, Duel Monsters is called Yu-Gi-Oh! and it is just a game. Hell, it's not even widely popular. I think that this might not be the same world we were in a few days ago," he continued.

"Um, are you two high?" she asked, kind of scared.

"Oh yes, because something can totally give you the ability to spontaneously materialize AND keep you high for 3 days, while you are unconscious," Connor remarked, still kind of unhappy.

"He could have put that better, but he is right. Look I'll prove it," said Trey as he pulled a deck of cards from the backpack next to the hospital bed he was sitting in. He looked through them and then pulled out a copy of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and handed it to her.

"This, this is impossible! How can you have a copy of this card?" she asked.

"A copy? I have three," said Trey handing the other two copies and their fusion to her.

"But, but, that's not…hey, something is happening to them!" she said while handing them back to Trey.

The image of the white dragon on the card slowly faded out into a shadow, while the card's name changed and an effect appeared in place of the card's text. A quick look proved that the same thing had happened to the other two cards. Trey immediately began looking through all the cards in his deck. While the change made to the Blue-Eyes was the most dramatic, every single one of the cards had been changed. None of them had Yu-Gi-Oh! printed on the back and they had all lost the Kazuki Takahashi copyright. Trey pulled out his other deck (the one that contained his Artifact monsters) and looked through it while Connor searched his various decks. The same change had been made to every single card that the two possessed. Suddenly Connor realized something.

"Wait, I don't remember getting all my cards, I only had the one deck I used in the tournament, and besides, I don't remember ever owning a backpack like this either," he said.

Trey frowned, "You're right. I don't remember getting my second deck either. This is strange. And look!" He pulled out the Interdimensional Matter Transporter card that had brought them to this place, "This was in my backpack as well. This is what brought us here, but I was sure it disappeared when it activated. Anyway, Max, do you at least believe us now? I mean both of us have cards in our decks that according to you are exceedingly rare or, in the case of what were once my Blue-Eyes, impossible to have."

"I don't think I have a choice. I mean you have cards that I have never heard of, and cards that are impossibly rare. But still, it's kind of hard to believe that you are from a different world."

Connor spoke up, "Then how about we have a duel to settle it. You pick one of us, and if we can get our hands on another duel disk then we will duel you. If you win, we will drop it. If we win, I won't ask you to believe us, but you can drop it."

"Fine. I think that since you have more decks though, I'll duel the other one. By the way, what are your names?" asked Max.

"Oh, right. Well, I'm Trey, and the rude one is Connor."

"Hey!" Connor interjected

"Okay, but first we need to get you a duel disk, and you need to get checked out of the hospital," Max said.

0

(A few days later, as Trey and Connor were checking out of the hospital)

"Right, thanks for everything. I guess we'll be on our way now," said Trey.

"Oh, one last thing before you go. A package arrived last night with your names on it. please wait while I go get it." the nurse at the checkout area said. A few minutes later she returned with a large box. When Trey and Connor opened it they were surprised to find two brand new duel disks, each with a sticky note on it. Each sticky note had a single word written on it. One said 'Connor', while the other one said 'Trey'. Inside each box was a custom duel disk and a smartphone. At that moment Max walked up and saw the two holding brand new duel disks with confused looks on their face.

"Where did you get those?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, when we went to check out, the nurse said a package came for use, and when we opened it, this is what was inside." replied Connor.

"We got cell phones too. The strange part is that the phones have our same numbers, and when I checked the data, it said we had an unlimited amount." Trey said, "Which is a good thing, I think, since we can't figure out where our actual phones went."

"Well, that's at least one thing we don't have to worry about. This means we can duel right away." said Max, "But if you are telling the truth and this is the first time you have actually used a duel disk, then we should go somewhere more private for the duel so we don't attract a crowd."

"Okay, but where should we go?" asked Trey.

"There's a parking garage near the hotel I'm staying in. We can go to the top of that and duel. It should be pretty private, and it's not that far away." Max responded.

0

(About 15 minutes later, at the top of the parking garage)

"Let's get ready to duel. Since you are new to the duel disk, I'll let you go first." said Max as her disk unfolded.

"Thanks, I think." replied Trey.

(Trey: 8000 ; Max: 8000)

Both players took their places, after some instruction from Max as to how far apart they were supposed to stand, and on the basics of operating a duel disk.

"Since I'm going first, I draw!" announced Trey as he drew his sixth card, "First, I will summon my Eclipse Wyvern in Attack mode." he said as he placed the card face up in the monster slot on the duel disk. The small red, black and silver dragon appeared in front of them. (1600 ATK). "I will place two cards face down and activate Chaos Zone to end my turn," Trey stated as the two cards materialized in his Spell/Trap Zones and the parking lot disappeared and was replaced by what seemed to be a long blue tube intersected by grid lines.

"Do you usually empty your hand on your first turn?" asked Max as she drew her sixth card. "Well, I will counter by setting three face down cards myself and activating the Poison Fangs spell card." The three face down cards appeared in the Spell/Trap Zones while the Poison Fangs continuous spell card materialized next to it. "I will also summon a monster of my own. One of the strongest mammals alive today, the mighty Wildcat Lion!" she shouted as the large beast walked out onto the field baring its teeth hungrily. (2100 ATK) "He's strong for a level four monster, but unfortunately, he can't inflict battle damage if he's alone, there has to be another Wildcat monster on the field for that to happen. Anyway, lets have my Lion take out your Wyvern!" The lion pounced and the wyvern shattered into tiny polygons. Trey smiled.

"I have to thank you. In case you didn't know, Eclipse Wyvern has an effect that activates when he is sent to the Graveyard. now I can banish one high-level LIGHT or DARK attribute dragon from my deck, but don't worry, he won't be staying there for very long." Trey said as he moved the dragon from his deck to his pocket. When he did a white swirling vortex appeared on the wall to his left. "And my Chaos Zone field spell gains one Chaos Counter.

"Maybe, but you're wide open to attack next round. I end my turn." Max replied.

"Okay then." Trey drew a card and smiled just a little. "I summon Jain, the Lightsworn Paladin in attack mode!" The warrior in pure white armor appeared on the field. (1800 ATK) "I end my turn, which means I need to mill two cards from my deck" Trey said as he put two cards into his graveyard. "And since one of those cards was my other Eclipse Wyvern, that means that I can use his effect to banish another high level dragon from my deck. Which also means Chaos Zone gains another Counter." Trey said as he moved a second card from his deck to his pocket and another white vortex appeared. "I end my turn."

"Fine, that just means it is my turn, and this time you won't get away with no damage!" Max said as she drew another card. "First I will summon one of the fastest animals on the planet. The Wildcat Cheetah! The cheetah is so fast that when I successfully Normal Summon him, I can make an additional Normal Summon as long as I use it to summon a Wildcat monster. So, I will summon Wildcat Tiger in Attack mode as well!" The cheetah ran onto the field as a blur and then sat down (1200 ATK), while the tiger stalked forward onto the field(1700 ATK). "Just in case, I will also activate all three of my set cards! The two continuous trap cards Roaring Earth and Howl of the Wild, plus the Horns of the Phantom Beast trap card! With Howl of the Wild, every time one of my monsters destroys one of your monsters, you take 300 damage for each Beast-Type monster I control, and with Roaring Earth my beast-type monsters deal piercing damage when they attack a Defense Position monster, and when they do I get to make one of your face-up monsters lose 500 ATK and DEF! And Horn of the Phantom Beast will increase my Lion's attack by 800 and allow me to draw a card every time he destroys a monster!" (2100 2900 ATK) "So, I will have my Lion attack your Jain and destroy her!" Max exclaimed.

"So it IS a she. I could never tell because of the way the card was drawn," Connor interrupted.

"I don't think so!" Trey said as he activated one of his face down cards, Scrap Iron Scarecrow. "This trap allows me to block one of your attacks every turn, so your Lion has been stopped in its tracks. And Connor, of course Jain is a she. I'm pretty she is based off of Joan of Arc."

"Whatever," Connor said.

"Fine, since neither of my other monsters can get through Jain's attack, I will end my turn." Max said.

"Good, I draw. Don't you know that simple cats would never be able to take out a real dragon in the wild?" Trey said with a mean smirk on his face as he drew another card. "First I will activate the effect of my Lightpulsar Dragon in the Graveyard. I can send one Light and one Dark attribute monster from my hand, like my Alexandrite Dragon and my Axe Dragonute, to the graveyard to Special Summon him to the field!"

A large white and silver dragon with a white gem glowing in the middle of its chest appeared on the field. (2500 ATK)

"Then, I can activate the effect of Darkflare Dragon in my hand. I can banish one Light and one Dark Attribute monster from my Graveyard to Special Summon him to the field! So, I will banish one of my Eclipse Wyverns and my Axe Dragonute from my Graveyard to do so."

The large black and red dragon with a glowing yellow gem in its chest appeared on the field with a loud roar (2400 ATK) while a third and fourth white vortex formed on the field spell.

"And since two more cards were banished, Chaos Zone gains two more counters and the second effect of my Eclipse Wyvern activates. When it is banished from the Graveyard, the monster I banished with its effect is returned to my hand. So the card I banished with my first Wyvern is now returned to my hand. And since I still haven't Normal Summoned yet, I will send my Darkflare Dragon and Jain to the graveyard to summon the mighty Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon! (2800 ATK) And I will use his effect to bring back the Darkflare Dragon I sacrificed to summon him." The enormous black metal dragon with glowing red eyes appeared on the field. Its metallic scales seemed to shimmer for a moment, and then with a bloodcurdling roar, the Darkflare Dragon that had just disappeared returned to the field. (2400 ATK). My Lightpulsar Dragon will attack your Tiger and my Darkflare will attack your Cheetah. And with that, I end my turn."

(T: 8000 ;; M: 5000)

"I'll take my turn then." Max said as she drew a card. "And I will activate it! I activate Ancient Fangs of the Wildcats and equip it to my Wildcat Lion! This increases his attack by 300, and every time he destroys one of your monsters and sends it to the Graveyard, you take 300 points of damage!" (2900 ATK 3200 ATK) "However, because of your Scrap Iron Scarecrow, there is no point in attacking, so I end my turn."

"Okay, then I draw." Trey said as he drew his card. An evil smile came across his face and he said, "I use the effect of my Darkflare Dragon. I send one dragon from my hand, like my Magna Drago, and one from my deck like my new Blue-Eyes card to the graveyard in order to banish one card from either graveyard. I think I'll choose my remaining Eclipse Wyvern. The effect of my Eclipse Wyvern activates bringing the monster I banished with its effect back to my hand. Now, I can use the effect of my Red-Eyes to Special Summon it from my hand! Behold the power of one of the strongest monsters in this deck!" An enormous glowing blue dragon materialized on the field. It seemed to be made of glowing blue energy with darker blue and red armor covering various parts of its body. The Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon let loose an ear-splitting roar that made the lion on Max's side of the field cringe. (3000 ATK) "I will even be nice and give you one turn to try and figure out what you can do to stop me. Enjoy the handicap, and remember, I could have won this turn."

"I don't need your stinking handicap!" Max shouted as she drew a card. "First, I will Normal Summon my second Wildcat Cheetah (1200 ATK). I will then tribute him and my Wildcat Lion to summon one of the strongest monsters in MY deck. I summon Wildcat Leo Atrox in attack mode!" A huge dark grey lion, nearly half as tall at the shoulder as the Photon Dragon with dark grey stripes running along its back slowly stalked onto the field. (3000 ATK) When the lion roared, it sounded like a quiet rumble at first, but then became so loud that all the dragons on Trey's side of the field cringed, with the exception of the Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, which roared back at it.

"Whoa! I gotta say, dueling with actual Duel Disks is everybody who plays this game's dream, but damn, this is even cooler than I thought it would be, and I'm not even the one dueling!" Connor exclaimed.

"What is that thing? I've never seen anything like it!" Trey asked.

"This is one of the most powerful cards there is of the Wildcat archetype. It was just released not to long ago. This card is based off of the American Lion, one of the biggest, baddest, and oldest known species of cat that has been discovered. It also happens to be one of my favorite cards. But again, since you have that Scrap-Iron Scarecrow on the field, there is no reason for me to attack. I end my turn." Max said with a smirk on her face.

"Fine, I'll draw. And even though I could easily get past that thing with Galaxy-Eyes effect, I appreciate the challenge. I will try to find another way around it." Trey said with a smirk as he drew his next card. "Just to speed this along, I will use Galaxy-Eyes to attack your Leo Atrox and use its effect to banish them both and then end my turn." A sixth and seventh Vortex appeared as both monsters returned to the field.

"What are you planning?" asked Max as she drew a card. "And what does this field spell of yours even do?" She looked at the card she drew and set it in her Spell/Trap Zone. "I end my turn."

"Then I will draw, and hopefully enact my plan!" Trey said with a smile. "Perfect! Now, my Galaxy-Eyes will attack your Leo Atrox!" The Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon rushed towards the giant lion, and in a clash of fangs and claws, both monsters were destroyed.

"What was the point of that? You just activated the effect of my Howl of the Wild card, so you take 300 points of damage!"

(T: 7500 ;; M: 5000)

"I know, but it was worth it. Now, I use Darkflare's effect again! I will send my Strong Wind Dragon from my hand and my Dark Armed Dragon from my deck to the Graveyard to banish your Leo Atrox from your graveyard with Darkflare's effect. This gives Chaos Zone 8 counters, which means that I am almost done." As the images of the three cards passed in front of Darkflare Dragon, an eighth vortex appeared. You were wondering what my field spell does. Well I'll tell you. If I have at least four counters on it, I can remove any number of counters to Special Summon a monster with a level equal to or lower than the number of counters I remove from either players Out of Play Zone. And since your Leo Atrox is currently banished, that means…"

"You are going to use my own monster against me?!" Max exclaimed.

"Exactly. I move into my second Main Phase and remove all eight counters from Chaos Zone to Special Summon Wildcat Leo Atrox from your Out of Play Zone!" Trey smiled as all eight of the smaller vortexes converged into a single vortex out of which walked the Wildcat Leo Atrox, only it was on Trey's side of the field and not Max's. "And I use the effect of Red-Eyes to summon Galaxy-Eyes back to my side of the field, and your last turn starts."

"You are a horrible person," Max said as she drew what would probably be her last card. She stared at the useless Horn of the Phantom Beast she had just drawn and said, "I end my turn."

Trey drew a card without even looking at it. "Galaxy-Eyes, Leo Atrox, attack her directly and finish this duel."

(T: 7500 ; M: 0)

"Max, good duel. I've never seen cards like your Wildcats before. Are they new?" Trey asked.

Max stared at Trey unable to believe his sudden change in behaviour and attitude from during the duel. "Why did you act so mean during the duel, but now you seem so friendly?" she asked incredulously.

"Oh, sorry about that. It is part of my duel strategy. I act mean and infuriating in order to make my opponent mad so they will more mistakes. It is actually a pretty effective strategy, even if people who duel me tend to not like me afterwards." Trey responded. "Anyway, it was a good duel, I just had lucky draws is all."

"Hmm, you have so many cards that are exceedingly rare, you're either extremely rich, or you actually are from another dimension. You don't act like someone that's extremely rich, and if you were I would probably recognize you. If you want, I can help you learn more about this world, and maybe try and help you get back to your home." Max offered.

"Sounds like a plan." Trey replied, holding out his open hand.

Max smiled and placed her hand on top of his, and Connor walked over and did the same.

"You know, if we're gonna do this whole team thing, why don't we come up with a team name?" Connor proposed.

"Connor, shut up," Trey replied.

"What? It was just a suggestion."

0

After the duel, the trio walked to a bank to get their money exchanged into yen, and then to the hotel where Max was staying, they walked up to the counter. Max was about to get them checked in, when Connor interrupted.

"すみません," he said, "ふたつの近くへやがありますか？"

"はい、あります。" the receptionist replied, "ほしですか？"

"はい。"

"名前は？"

"ピヤスとコクス。"

"ちょっとまっていください," said the receptionist, typing on her computer.

She left for a moment, then came back holding two plastic cards.

"どうぞ、これはそのへやのかぎです。"

"ありがとうございます。"

Connor took them, handed her some money and walked back to the two of them.

"Uh, Connor, what was that?" Max asked.

"What? I've been studying Japanese for five years," he replied.

"But what did you say?"

"I asked if they had two rooms that were close to each other, gave her our names and paid for them. By the way Trey, you owe me for that."

"Got it."

"You two are just chock full of surprises aren't you?" Max asked.

"Yes," Connor and Trey said together.

She let out a long sigh, and walked toward the elevator. After a moment, Trey and Connor followed. They got out on the same floor, and Max went to her room. To her surprise, Connor and Trey went to either side of her.

"Um…" she started.

"These are our rooms," Trey said, cutting her off.

"Oh, god. I give up."

"What did I do?" Trey asked.

"Oh, nevermind!" she yelled, storming into her room.

Trey looked over at Connor. Connor shrugged, and walked into his room.

Trey sighed and said to himself:

"As far as first days go, this could have been way worse."

He closed the door behind him and fell asleep on his bed.

CHAPTER END

Fan-made cards used in the chapter:

**Wildcat Cheetah: Level 4 - WIND - Beast - 1200 ATK/800 DEF - If you successfully Normal Summon this card, you may Normal Summon one additional monster this turn, so long as it has "Wildcat" in its name.

**Wildcat Lion: Level 4 - EARTH - Beast - 2100 ATK/ 1200 DEF -The battle damage inflicted by this card is reduced to 0 if there is not a "Wildcat" monster on the field other than "Wildcat Lion".

**Wildcat Tiger: Level 4 - FIRE - Beast - 1700 ATK/ 700 DEF - When this monster destroys a monster that is level five or higher, gain Life Points equal to one-hundred times that monster's level.

**Wildcat Leo Atrox: Level 8 - EARTH - 3000 ATK/2500 DEF - Beast - You can Normal Summon/Set this card without Tributing, but its original ATK and DEF becomes 1000. You can Tribute Summon this card using three monsters, and if you do, draw five cards. While this card is on the field, other "Wildcat" monsters you control cannot be targeted for attacks.

**Ancient Fangs of the Wildcats: Equip Spell - Increase the ATK of a Beast-Type monster with "Wildcat" in its name equipped with this card by 300 points. Each time the equipped monster destroys an opponent's monster and sends it to the graveyard, inflict 300 damage to your opponent.


	3. Chapter 2

0

Chapter 2: Let's have some fun, shall we?

0

The next day, Connor woke up. He got dressed and walked over to his new Duel Disk. He picked it up, and noticed something he hadn't before. Where the deck holder should have been was a revolver-like contraption with 5 openings. This would allow him to put in all five of his decks in at the same time, so he could spin it to pick a deck.

"This is really cool!" he exclaimed.

He went back and took out all 5 of his decks and put them in the openings, spinning it a few times just to get a feel for it. Though he couldn't quite figure out where the mechanism was or how it worked, every time he spun it a deck landed perfectly upright. While he was still messing with it, he heard a knock at his door.

"Who is it?"

"Who do you think?" Trey said, "I want to show you something. I found a weird feature on my Duel Disk."

"Me too, come on in," Connor replied, opening the door.

Trey walked in, "What did you find?" Trey looked at Connor's Duel Disk, "Oh. Nevermind."

"Cool right? You?"

"Well, you know how my decks require searching and shuffling?"

"Yeah?"

"It turns out there is a screen on the side of the disk, and every time I need to search, it lights up and shows a list of the cards I can search for. When I press the name on the list, the deck spits that card out and then shuffles itself. Its great!" Trey explained. Then he frowned. "Should we wake Max up to show her? I'm not sure if she would get mad at us."

"Don't bother. I'm already up." Max said.

Connor let her in.

"What did you want to show me?"

"This stuff." Connor said, showing her the spinning deck holder.

"And mine has an an auto-searching and an auto-shuffling feature in it." Trey said.

"I get the feeling that's not exactly standard issue," Connor said.

"Um, no, it's not. Auto-shufflers are expensive, and much bulkier than those are, and I've never even heard of an automatic searcher." Max said with a confused look on her face. She shook her head and continued. "The reason I came over is to tell you about a local card tournament that will be taking place in a couple of days. It's not a super big tournament, but there is a 50000 yen cash prize. It would also be a good way for you to get used to the disks. The main house rule though is that you have to use the same deck the whole way through. If you want to join, you have to sign up by today, though."

"Okay. Let's go then." Connor said. "How far away is it?"

"Not too far." Max said.

"What is this?" Trey said under his breath as he pulled a card out of his pocket that was in his pocket. The card itself was sealed in plastic, but what was unusual was that the plastic didn't have a seam. He read the effect and paled slightly.

"Trey? What's wrong?" Connor asked.

"It's nothing. It's just this card. I've never even heard of it, but its effect is insane. It will work great with my Chaos Dragons, though." Trey said.

"Let me see." Connor said as he walked over. "Whoa, that is… strong."

"What does it do?" Max asked.

"I'll tell you if I ever manage to use it." Trey said as he put it back in his pocket. "Connor, check your stuff, did you get any weird cards?"

Connor lifted his disk, and a little screen popped up.

"Uh, is this what you meant by auto-searching?"

"Yeah, if you click on a card name, it should spit it out. And, if you have that too, then you probably have an auto-shuffler as well."

"Ok."

He flipped through his decks.

"Nope."

"I found it in my pocket, why don't you try there?" Trey pointed out.

"K."

He reached into his pocket.

"Hm?"

He pulled out a package. It looked like a booster pack, sealed in the same kind of seamless plastic as the one Trey had found. He opened it, and pulled out not one but eight cards.

"Oh yeah, I've got some too," he said enthusiastically.

Trey frowned, "Why do I only get one?" He said as he pulled his card back out and looked at it. He opened the plastic, and to his surprise, it was not one, but two cards pressed together. He put the first card into his dragon deck and said, "This card's pretty cool too, and it will be perfect for my Artifacts." He put that card into the side deck section of his duel disk, and then loaded the rest of his Artifacts into it as well.

"What are the other rules for the tournament?" Connor asked, looking at Max.

"Well, since you have to register a deck at the sign-up, your opponent is notified of what type of deck you will be using about fifteen minutes before your duel. But at the same time, no cards other than the ones you already have on you are allowed near you, and you are not supposed to use your Side Deck to improve your odds, either.. Also, the tournament itself has 6 rounds, with 64 players two brackets. The winners of each bracket then duel each other in the sixth round, and the winner gets the 50000 yen while the loser gets a smaller consolation prize. The brackets aren't decided until right before the tournament either, and it is done by a computer in front of the audience. Technically, you have until an hour before the tournament to sign up, but they only accept 64 competitors, and it's first come first serve. Even if someone doesn't show, you can't get in. They just treat it as a loss. Also, since every Duel Disk must be scanned before the first duel, there is no worry of Duel Disks being tampered with, and the ban list is updated as well. That means no fake cards, no banned cards, and no cards that exceed a limit can be used." Max explained, sounding like she was quoting it from a book. A thoughtful look came across her face. "One other thing. Usually, a good deal of the audience shows up after the first two or three rounds because the first few rounds are usually just there to weed out the people who have no business being in a tournament, and if necessary translators are available as well, but that shouldn't be a problem."

"Not for me at least. Well, since it's a limited sign up, let's go ahead and get over to the place so that we can sign ? Would you please show us how to get there?" Connor asked.

"You guys are hopeless. What would you do without me? Let's go." Max stated with a grin on her face.

"I would wander around lost and confused. Connor would probably figure something out. After all, I only know a few words in Japanese, not enough to get by." Trey said. He paused, and then he said, "Well, this is all assuming that we woke up on our own or that no one else found us lying on the sidewalk, of course."

Max let out a loud groan, and the two boys grinned.

0

Shortly after, at the tournament sign-up area.

"I think I'll use my Artifact deck for the tournament, how about you Connor?

"Probably my X-Sabers," he replied.

"And Max, are you going to enter?" Trey asked while he filled out the application for the tournament.

"No. I'm more interested in watching your other decks in action. Besides, you may not have noticed, but you two just grabbed the last two sign-up sheets.

0

A few days later, at the start of the tournament.

"So Connor, it looks like your first opponent is using a Bujin deck. Do you think your X-Sabers can handle it?" Max asked.

"You bet," Connor said, with a fiendish glint in his eyes, "These guys will tear them apart."

Max took a small step back.

"Calm down, we don't have the same duel strategy when we duel separately. Connor always acts cruel and bloodthirsty to intimidate his opponents. I, well, my duel strategy is pretty much the same. I just try to infuriate my opponent so they make mistakes. He scares the crap out of them. Granted, we don't use these strategies against each other, since we know how they work. When we duel each other, well … we haven't done that since we went pro back in our world." Trey said.

"Oh. Fun," she replied.

Connor then coughed and resumed his composure.

"Well, the tournaments about to start, we should get going."

0

They walked to the arena, which Trey and Connor both thought looked remarkably like an arena from an episode of Pokémon, only without the ball in the middle.

"Ok. This is cool," Connor said.

"Yep. It is," Trey replied.

"Ok boys, I know it's your first time seeing an arena, but you should be heading to your prep rooms," Max said.

"Ok," the pair said in unison.

0

Trey walked into the isolated prep room. One of the tournament officials walked in and informed him that his opponent would be using a Geargia deck.

He pulled his new card from the pack he had found in his pocket, and then slid it back into his extra deck with a smile.

"Maybe I'll get a chance to use it," Trey said, and then to the official, "I have nothing to change. I'm ready to start."

Trey walked out to the stage, and pressed the auto-shuffler button. He looked at his opponent, a tall man with blonde hair down to his shoulders.

"I'm Trey, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said. The other man looked at him.

"My name is Abraham. I have no interest in who you are or that you use an Artifact deck. It makes no difference because you will lose." Abraham said.

"Foul temper, or just grumpy? I've heard it is a common way to cover up incompetence. Or maybe, in your case, you're covering up impotence?" Trey said with a cruel grin on his face. "Let's start this duel so we can see if the first one is true, if not, then maybe the other one is."

(Abraham: 8000 ;; Trey: 8000)

Abraham simply stared at Trey and drew six cards, while Trey drew five. He looked at the cards in his hand and placed one on his duel disk and a small cartoon gear appeared in the middle of the field. (1000 ATK)

"My Geargiano Mk-II allows me to summon another Geargia monster in defense mode. Like my Geargiarmor." Abraham said. The small metal robot holding large shields appeared, covering itself with its arms. (1900 DEF)

"Because I control a Geargia monster, I can special summon my Geargiaccelerator from my hand in defense position." (800 DEF) "But, he won't be staying for very long, because I overlay him with my Geargiarmor to summon my Gear Gigant X in attack mode." The small race car and shield bearer disappeared into a vortex and the large robot appeared on the field. (2300 ATK)

"I could keep going, but I think I'll let you make a move and end my turn." Abraham said.

Trey smiled as he drew his sixth card. "Not a good idea on your part. But I won't be doing much, just setting a few cards." He placed five cards face down. "I think that should do it for my turn."

"Then I will draw a card and " Abraham said before Trey cut him off.

"You should stop there for a moment. I activate Artifact Ignition, which allows me to target one set spell or trap card on the field and destroy it, and then I can set an Artifact monster from my deck to my spell card zone. I'll use it to destroy my face down Artifact Caduceus. Because an Artifact monster was destroyed outside of battle, I can summon Artifact Labrys from my hand before Caduceus shows up. I can also set my Artifact Failnaught from my deck."

The large axe (2300 ATK) and the Caduceus (2400 DEF) appeared on the field.

"Also, in response to my Caduceus being special summoned, I activate my trap card, Artifact Sanctum, which allows me to Special Summon one Artifact monster from my deck, and I'll use it to special summon Artifact Beagalltach (2100 DEF) from my deck. His effect allows me to destroy up to two set spell or trap cards on my side of the field, like my Artifact Moralltach (2100 ATK) and Artifact Aegis (2500 DEF), which causes them to be special summoned. And since Caduceus is on the field, I draw one card for each Artifact summoned during your turn." Trey explained as he drew three cards. "And my Moralltach lets me destroy one face up card that you control, so he will destroy your Gear Gigant X, While Aegis prevents my Artifact monsters from being targeted or destroyed by card effects this turn. That should just about do it, so you can finish now."

"I don't have any low level geargia monsters in my graveyard, so I can't use my Gigant's effect." Abraham said as he looked at the one monster on his field and the four cards in his hand. "I will summon my second Geargiano Mk - II, and use his effect to summon Geargiano MK-III. When Geargiano MK-III is Special Summoned by the effect of a Geargia monster, he lets me Special Summon any Geargia monster from my hand or Graveyard in defense mode, but with its effects negated, like my Geargiarsenal. And I will summon another Geargiaccelerator in defense mode as well.

Geargiano Mk-II (1000 ATK); Geargiano MK-III (1000 DEF); Geargiarsenal (500 DEF); Geargiaccelerator (800 DEF)

"I will overlay my Geargiarsenal and my Geargiaccelerator to summon a second Gear Gigant X." (2300 ATK) "I will also overlay my two Geargiano Mk-II and my Geargiano MK-III to Xyz summon Geargiagear Gigant XG. (2500 ATK)

"Nice move, but you used up every card in your hand, and don't that much on the field, so I hope you have a plan." Trey commented.

"My Gear Gigant will attack your Moralltach." Abraham said, "And my Gigant XG will attack your Labrys."

"I will let your Gear Gigant's attack go through, but I discard Honest from my hand to increase Labrys's attack by 2500"

(Trey: 7800 ;; Abraham: 5700)

"I end my turn." Abraham said.

"In that case, I draw. Though, what I don't understand is why you didn't use XG's effect to stop me from using Honest in the first place. But anyway, I will overlay my Caduceus, Aegis, and Beagalltach to Xyz summon one of my strongest monsters, Digvorzhak, the King of Heavy Industry. If I detach one of his Xyz materials, I can make you mill three cards from the top of your deck, and for every monster card sent to the graveyard by his effect, I can destroy a card that you control." The massive drilling machine appeared on the field. (3200 ATK) "And I will detach one of his materials to use his effect, as well." Trey said with a giant smile on his face.

Abraham pulled three cards off the top of his deck, and revealed Terraforming and two copies of Geartown.

Trey frowned, "Well, I wouldn't have been able to win this round anyway. My Digvorzhak will destroy your Gear Gigant. And my Labrys will crush whichever Geargiano you bring back from the graveyard."

Abraham said, "I bring back Geargiano MK-III in defense mode."

"So you lose your Gear Gigant and your Geargiano, and take 900 points of damage." Trey said. "I think next round, you won't be so lucky. I set two cards from my hand and end my turn."

(Trey: 7800 ;; Abraham: 4800)

"I draw, and then I assume you will activate whatever that facedown card of yours is?" Abraham asked.

"You know me so well! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy my Artifact Failnaught. Which causes him to be special summoned, and I set Moralltach from my graveyard due to his effect." (2000 ATK)

"I will summon Geargiarsenal in attack mode and end my turn!" (1500 → 1700 ATK)

"I will overlay my Labrys and my Failnaught to summon my Artifact Durendal!" (2400 ATK) "Then, my Digvorzhak will use its effect to make you mill three cards."

Abraham held up Fissure, Roll Out!, and Yellow Gadget, and then removed his Geargiarsenal from the field.

"My Digvorzhak and my Durendal attack you directly!" Trey said as Abraham's life points dropped to zero.

(Trey: 7800 ;; Abraham: 0 )

Trey didn't give him another thought. He turned and walked out of the arena.

0

Connor sat in a room much like the one Trey was in. He heard about Trey's victory over the Play-By-Play Intercom. He smiled, and closed his eyes, preparing for his duel.

A few other duels went by, until eventually the official, the same one who got Trey, walked toward him, telling him that his opponent was using a Bujin deck.

With his eyes still closed, Connor stood up. He opened them and told the official he was ready.

0

When he got to the arena, he saw his opponent. He was white, about 6'1", brown eyes, and maybe 130 pounds. He wore a blue and white button down and a red tie, with brown slacks.

"Hey my name is Spencer, you?" he said.

"Connor."

"Well, let's get this show on the road. You can go first!"

(Connor: 8000 , Spencer: 8000)

They drew their opening hands. and Connor grinned.

"Oh are you gonna regret that!" he said, that scary grin still on his face, "I activate the One for One Spell Card!"

He threw the card in his disk, and appeared, showing a glowing star rising from another monster's corpse

"By discarding a monster like my XX-Saber Faultroll, I can Summon one Level 1 Monster from my deck, like my XX-Saber Ragigura!"

He placed the card down, and a small green bipedal lizard man wearing a red robe, and holding 2 small metal bludgeons appeared, kneeling in defense. (1000 DEF)

"And when he is summoned, I can move one X-Saber monster from my graveyard to my hand, like the Faultroll I just discarded."

He removed the monster from his graveyard.

"Now I summon my XX-Saber Fulhelmknight!"

A blonde, somewhat androgynous knight appeared holding a sword hilt with multiple fragments floating around her. (1300 ATK)

"And now, since I have 2 X-Saber's on the field, I can Special Summon my XX-Saber Faultroll!"

A large armored man with a huge greatsword jumped onto the field. (2400 ATK)

"Know, what? Why stop there? I think I'll summon a second one."

A mirror to the man that just appeared burst out. (2400 ATK)

"Now the fun starts," He pressed a button on his disk, and a track from the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's Soundtrack, specifically the one used when Yusei Synchro Summons began to play, "I tune my Level 3 Fulhelmknight with my Level 6 Faultroll!

The two monsters exploded into stars, and the stars began to merge into a much larger star.

"Barbarian king in a lawless land, mighty general of a great army! Name synonymous with strength, an avatar of primal power! Come forth to bring victory!

(*3 + *6 = *9)

Synchro Summon: XX-Saber Gottoms!"

The larger star grew and faded out, revealing a man, bulkier than any so far, carrying a similar sword to the Faultroll's, only with armor covering his whole body. (3100 ATK)

"..."

"What?" asked Spencer.

"Dump your hand," Connor replied.

"What? Why?"

"Oh, you don't see it. My bad, let me spell it out. First, Gottoms' effect allows me to sacrifice an X-Saber to make you discard one card. So, I sacrifice Ragigura and the Faultroll whose effect I used to make you discard two cards. With me so far?"

"Yeah, keep going," he said, discarding two cards, as Connor went through the motions.

"Ok, Now, I use my other Faultroll to re-summon Ragigura, which, as you may recall, allows me to move an X-Saber back to my hand from the graveyard. Now, since I again have two X-Sabers, I can then re-summon my Faultroll, allowing me to do that same combo again, bringing you down to one card."

"Oh, come on!"

"Hey, I told you you'd regret letting me go first. Now I continue the loop until both Faultroll's are back on the field. Then I sacrifice Ragigura to make you get rid of your last card. Then I use my remaining Faultroll to re-summon my Fulhelmknight. Then I end my turn with one facedown card."

"Yeah, like it matters. Draw!" Spencer exclaimed.

"Go! Lightforce Sword!"

Connor's facedown card lifted, and a sword flew forward and impaled the card Spencer drew.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That is bull shit!"

"Happy you feel that way. Is that all?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes," Connor said, drawing, "Let's end this! Go, X-Saber Grand Cross!"

Connor flung out his left hand and the 4 X-Saber's took up a stance on each of the cardinal directions, and rushed forward to slash from all directions.

(Connor: 8000 , Spencer: 0)

"I'm going home," said Spencer.

Without so much as a second thought, he ran off,

"Huh. Guess some guys just aren't used to losing."

0

After several more rounds, the Final duelists were announced.

"Ok dueling fans, here is our final match!"

Trey and Connor's pictures appeared on the display.

"These two duelists have dominated the tournament so far! Let's see how they do against each other! Finalists, meet back here in one hour for the final duel."

Trey and Connor looked at each other, and smiled.

CHAPTER END


	4. Chapter 3

_There was a slight alteration to the second chapter. There was some story added back to it. I recommend you go back and read it. Also, sorry about not posting chapters. We have had several chapters written, but were waiting till we could write again till we started posting again. As an apology I am going to go ahead and post a second chapter after this one right now._

0

Chapter 3: Who's the man?

0

"So, let me get this straight," Trey said. "We can choose to change our decks before this last duel, but we have to tell the officials and have the deck checked out first?"

"That's right." Max replied. "It's to help counteract people that go and get cards to counter the decks of some of the stronger duelists during the tournament. You have no guarantee that they will even be using the same deck, and you can't find out until fifteen minutes before the last duel starts."

"Well, in that case, what do you say we go back to the old rivalry Trey?" Connor asked.

"You mean your Six Sams against my Dragons? But you almost always won those duels." Trey said.

"Maybe, but your Dragon deck has improved considerably since we dueled each other last time. Besides, weren't we going to be splitting the prize money regardless who wins anyway?" Connor said.

"You say that like your Six Sams haven't gotten any better." Trey retorted.

"Not as much of an improvement as your dragons, especially with those new Blue-Eyes cards you got replacing the originals. Speaking of those, did all the new cards check out against the ban list? you said you would check." Connor said.

"Yeah, I asked one of the officials about them. He said that he'd never seen them before, but according to the system they are legal cards. It's just a little strange that cards that no one has ever heard of before are legit. Even my Blue-Eyes Shadow Dragons and the two new cards I got are fine."  
"Speaking of the new cards, are you ever going to tell me what they are?" Max asked.

"If I ever get to use them, then yes." Trey answered.

"Another thing has been bothering me." Max said.

"What?" Connor asked.

"You guys say you come from another dimension, and given the cards you have I can believe that at least you aren't from around here, but what I don't understand is how you know so much of the history of this world. After all, if you aren't from here how could you have known that showing me three copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon would be any kind of a proof to me?" Max replied.

"Oh is that it? In our world, the game of Duel Monsters is based entirely on an anime called "Yu-Gi-Oh!". The show first depicts Yugi Mutou's adventures, and then later the adventures of someone named Jaden Yuki at a place called Duel Academy, just to start." Trey explained.

"Trey, his Japanese name was Judai, not Jaden, they changed it when the show was redone in English." Connor pointed out.

"Eh, whatever." Trey said.

"Okay then. It's weird that our world's history is just some show in yours. And also that the game would be made into real life." Max said.

"Not really. the show was actually really popular, and it wasn't the first show to be made into a game either. Quite a few shows were. Especially the ones made in Japan, not as many from America were made into games." Connor said, "And the ones that were never lasted long."

"Hey, it's almost time to get back to the tournament for our duel. We should get going." Trey said.

"You're right. let's go." Connor replied.

0

"Ok Dueling fans, It's time for what you have all been waiting for, the Final match between two seemingly Pro-level duelists!" said the announcer.

A roar went up from the crowd, as the two walked into the arena opposite each other. or at least a roar appropriate to fans sitting on 2 sets of bleachers in an arena about the size of a football field.

"Now normally we would give an introduction for our duelists, but these two are literally unknown! So without further ado, let's begin our final duel! Are our Finalists ready?"

"You bet." said Connor.

"Let's get going!" Trey exclaimed.

"Alright then …" started the announcer.

"LET'S DUEL!" yelled the audience.

0

(Trey: 8000, Connor: 8000)

"So, you go first?" Trey asked.

"Sure," Connor replied, "Draw! I summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki!"

A short Samurai with 2 large mechanical arms leapt into play. (200 ATK)

"Then using Kageki's effect I summon Spirit of The Six Samurai in Attack Mode!"

A pile of armor appeared. Then it assembled itself into a humanoid shape, and a ghostly blue figure appeared in it. (500 ATK)

"Then because there is another Six Samurai monster on the field, Kageki's Attack score goes up by 1500 points!"

Kageki glowed with green energy. (200 = 1700 ATK)

"Then also because I have another Six Samurai on the field-"

"No, not him," Trey complained.

" I can special summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan!"

A samurai with black armor trimmed with gold jumped onto the field. (1800 ATK)

"I freaking HATE Kizan!" Trey yelled.

Connor grinned, "I know. I set three cards, and activate the effect of Spirit. This allows me to equip him to a Six Samurai monster on my field, like my Kizan, boosting its ATK and DEF by 500!"

The blue figure in the Spirit armor dissipated and the armor attached itself to Kizan. (1800 = 2300).

"With that, I end my turn," said Connor.

"...Draw. You summoned him just to spite me didn't you?" Trey asked.

"Of course not, I would never do that," Connor replied sarcastically.

"Right. Well, I am going to set one card and summon Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn in attack mode., and then I will activate Chaos Zone."

A tall dark-skinned man with no shirt and a massive gold knife appeared on the field as it was replaced with the blue grid. (1700 ATK)

"I'll end my turn." Trey said as he moved the top two cards from his deck into his graveyard.

"Both of our duelists have made excellent starts, but from the looks of things, Connor seems to have taken the advantage," the announcer said.

"My turn. Draw! I activate the continuous Spell Card, Gateway of the Six! Now as I'm sure you know, It does nothing on its own, so I'm just going to move straight into my battle phase! Kizan, attack Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn!"

"You've activated my trap card! I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Trey exclaimed.

Connor just looked at him with a sigh.

The metal junkyard scarecrow appeared on the field. Kizan rushed into it, and bounced off.

"This negates your attack, and then sets itself face-down again." Trey explained.

"I end my turn." Connor said.

"Draw! I will use Raiden's effect to send the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard," Trey said as he pulled the two cards of. He frowned at them and then shrugged. "At least it got rid of a couple of dead draws. I end my turn, so Raiden makes me mill two more cards." Trey pulled the second two cards off his deck and smiled.

"And one of them is my Eclipse Wyvern! Since he was sent to the graveyard, I can banish one high level LIGHT or DARK attribute Dragon from my deck. And I think you know which one it is gonna be. And since I banished a card, Chaos Zone gets a counter." Trey exclaimed as he pulled the card from his deck and put it into his pocket. As he he did, a white vortex appeared on the field.

"Of course I know which monster it is, I helped you build that deck. Draw! I pass. Your move," Connor said flatly.

"Draw. Well, lets see if we can't get him to make an appearance! I sacrifice my Raiden to summon Darkflare Dragon!" Trey exclaimed.

A large black dragon with a glowing red gem on his chest appeared on the field surrounded by a fiery ring. (2400 ATK)

"And I will use his effect too! By sending one Dragon type monster from my hand and one from my deck to the Graveyard, I can banish one card in either player's Graveyard, like my Eclipse Wyvern." Trey said as he placed the two dragons into his graveyard and moved the third to his pocket.

"And since Eclipse Wyvern was banished, not only do I get another counter on Chaos Zone, but the monster I banished with his effect goes to my hand." Trey said as a second white vortex appeared behind him.

"And now to summon him. One of the keys of my deck, I banish my Darkflare Dragon to Special Summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

The massive black and red dragon appeared on the field with an earth shattering roar as a third white vortex appeared.

"I don't believe my eyes! Trey has summoned a monster that most people weren't even sure existed! If he has that card, who knows what other cards his deck could hold!" exclaimed the announcer.

"I'm not done!" Trey shouted. "Using my Red-Eyes effect, I summon one of the strongest monsters of my deck from the graveyard. Come forth, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"

The enormous blue and purple dragon appeared on the field with a roar that made even the Samurai cringe. (3000 ATK)

"And now I will enter my battle phase. Galaxy-Eyes destroy his Kageki, Photon Stream of Destruction!" Trey commanded.

The dragon replied by sending a blast of blue and white energy at the samurai.

(Trey: 8000, Connor: 6700)

"And with that I will end my turn," Trey said with a smile on his face.

"Draw! I switch Kizan to Defense mode, and end my turn," Connor said.

"I draw. I will use my Red-Eyes to Special Summon from my Graveyard, for the first time ever Blue-Eyes Shadow Dragon!" Trey said.

In a brilliant flash of light, the enormous iconic white dragon appeared on the field, before fading into a sort of shadowy form. (2800 ATK)

"U-Unbelievable! Trey has summoned a monster I've never even heard of! Who are these two duelists?!" cried the announcer.

"You know Trey, I gotta admit, I am impressed. Way to go," Connor stated.

Trey smiled. "And now it's time for that samurai to go! I am entering my battle phase. Galaxy-Eyes, attack his Kizan!"

"Wait! I activate Dimensional Prison," Connor interrupted.

"I use Galaxy-Eyes' effect to banish both him and Kizan until the end phase!" Trey said.

Galaxy-Eyes grabbed Kizan and the two of them vanished, as a fourth and fifth vortex appeared.

"And now my Blue-Eyes will attack you directly! Dark Lightning!" Trey said.

The dragon opened its mouth and a shadowy burst of lightning shot forward and slammed into Connor.

(Trey: 8000, Connor: 3900)

"Anyway, if you had that why didn't you use it last round?" asked Trey.

"Not gonna lie, I totally forgot it was there. My bad," Connor replied.

"And with that I will end my turn." Trey said smugly.

Both Galay-Eyes and Kizan returned to the field in a flash of light.

"Draw! Trey, I'll admit, that combo was great, Some of your best even," Connor said.

"Thanks," Trey replied.

"But I'm afraid all good things must come to an end. Go, Dark Hole!"Connor exclaimed

Connor played the card, and all monsters on the field were sucked into the black abyss.

"Next I activate my facedown. Double-Edged Sword Technique!"

His trap card flipped up.

"This trap allows me to Special Summon two Six Samurai Monsters from my Graveyard! So, Come on back, Kizan and Spirit!"

The black armored Samurai and the Ghostly Samurai reappeared. (1800 ATK), (500 ATK)

"Now we get to the fun part! Because I Summoned a Six Samurai monster, Gateway of the Six gains 2 Bushido Counters for each one, giving it a total of 4! I can remove some of those counters to activate 1 of 3 effects. I'll remove 4 to activate its second effect, allowing me to move a level for or lower Six Samurai monster from my deck or Graveyard to my hand, like my second Kizan!" Connor exclaimed.

"... No…" Trey said, "Another one?!"

"Dude, you know I have three. Next, I set one card facedown, and activate Asceticism of the Six Samurai! This allows me to summon a Six Samurai with equal attack, but a different name, Like Six Samurai Zanji!"

A Samurai with neon gold armor and a spear leapt onto the field. (1800 ATK)

"Now I summon my second Kizan!"

A second black armored samurai appeared, (1800 ATK)

"Now my Gateway has four counters again! I remove them to get my third and final Kizan, and special Summon it!

A third Kizan appeared. (1800 ATK)

"That's it. I am done!" Trey said.

"What? Don't tell me you're giving up already?" Connor asked, sarcastically.

"As if! You know I never give up!" Trey replied defiantly.

"Good. I Overlay my three Kizans to Xyz Summon Heroic Champion - Kusanagi!"

A tall warrior, covered in orange and brown armor wielding a sword that appeared to be made of fire appeared on the field. (2500 ATK)

"At least the freaking Kizans are gone, but there is no point in trying to use my Scarecrow anymore!" Trey complained.

"Next, I equip Zanji with Spirit!"

The blue figure faded again and his armor appeared on Zanji. (1800 = 2300 ATK)

"Now I attack with both of my Monsters!" Conner shouted.

(Trey: 4200 , Connor: 3900)

"I end my turn," Connor said calmly.

"Connor, I'm gonna have to say, that kinda hurt." Trey said."But now, let's see if I can't get a little bit of payback. I activate Dragon's Mirror!"

Connor had no response, just a stone faced stare.

"I will banish five Dragon type monsters from my Graveyard in order to summon the ultimate Dragon, the unstoppable Five God Dragon!" Trey yelled, as the massive five headed dragon appeared on the field, all five heads roaring in unison. At the same time, unnoticed by anyone except the two duelists, five more white vortexes appeared on the field, leaving a total of ten.

The announcer got up and said "I give up. I'm going home."

"Sorry Trey. Go, Compulsory Evacuation Device!" Connor exclaimed

No sooner had the dragon touched the ground than the Evacuation Device enveloped it and sent it back to his extra deck.

"There are a lot of things I won't let you do against me, and that is one of them." he continued.

Trey looked up at where the announcer had been sitting and said, "I think I broke him. Do you think he is coming back?"

"Nope."

"Oh well. I guess I should have known you would have something stupid like that hiding in there somewhere. I will use the effect of Chaos Zone. I can remove counters from it in order to summon a monster with a level equal to the number of counters I remove. And I will remove five in order to bring back my Darkflare Dragon!"

Five of the ten white vortexes converged into one large portal, and the large black dragon flew from it. (2400 ATK)

"And he will attack your Zanji!" Trey yelled.

"Ok, But he'll live." Connor replied.

The dragon roared, and black flames shot from its mouth, and hit the samurai, but Spirit's armor protected him, shattering in the process. (2300 ATK = 1800 ATK)

(Trey: 4200, Connor: 3800)

"I end my turn." Trey said.

"My turn! Draw! I set one card face down, and my Kusanagi attacks your Darkflare Dragon!"

The samurai rushed forward and slashed through the large dragon, cutting it completely in two.

"Now Zanji attacks you directly!" Connor continued

The second samurai rushed forward and swung at Trey, who tried to dodge it, and failed.

(Trey: 2300, Connor: 3800)

"I end my turn!"

"Draw! Hmm. I discard one card from my hand to activate Lightning Vortex!" Trey said.

" I activate my facedown card! Musakani Magatama! I can activate this card when you try to destroy my cards with an effect and I have one of the Six on the field, and it allows me to negate the effect altogether!" Connor interrupted.

"Huh. Well, in that case, I have to give you the victory. I end my turn." Trey said.

"Ok. Draw! Kusanagi? End this."

Kusanagi walked forward slowly. When he got close, he swung his sword at Trey.

(Trey: 0, Connor: 3800)

After a few seconds, one of the tournament officials climbed up to the announcer box and declared Connor the winner. The audience, still in a state of mild shock, sat for a moment before they started cheering.

After basking in their glory for a few moments, the two friends walked out of the arena.

0

Back at the hotel

"What was that!?" Max asked.

"What?" Trey asked with a guilty look on his face.

"Five-Headed Dragon? In a small tournament like that? Are you crazy?"

"He definitely is, but that's beside the point. What are you so upset about?" Connor broke in.

"Now every half-baked duelist that recognizes you is gonna try and duel you for it! What are you gonna do if you lose it?" Max asked.

"Put my second into the actual deck." Trey answered.

"Your second... What? You have two!?" Max asked.

"Yeah. where we come from, basically any card in the game can be gotten with just a few dollars, with a couple notable exceptions. Though, I didn't actually pay for either of mine specifically. I just kinda found them in packs. same with all my other cards." Trey said.

"Yeah. Hey Trey, you should show her your binder." Connor put in.

"And you! You just dealt with it like it was nothing! Wait, binder? You can't mean…" Max trailed off.

Trey reached into his backpack and pulled out a small binder of card sleeves. He handed it to her. as she looked through it, a look of shock went across her face.

"What is this? These cards, H-how, what? This binder is worth thousands of dollars." Max said.

Trey laughed.

"This is nothing. You should see some of the cards Connor has." Trey said as he put the binder back up.

"I'm not sure I want to." Max said. "Anyway, it's late. I'm going to bed."

She left.

"She has a point. I'll see you tomorrow Connor." Trey said as he left as well.

CHAPTER END


	5. Chapter 4

0

Chapter 4: Wait … What?

0

Three days later

"I'm telling you Connor, I love it here!" Trey said as the two of them watched a duel take place in the middle of a park. "I honestly don't know if I even want to go home."

"I know what you mean, but aren't you at least a little curious as to how we got here in the first place?" Connor asked.

"Of course I want to know how we ended up here, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'd like to go back home. I'd rather bring some of our friends over here. imagine how much they would love it here!" Trey answered.

"Yeah, you're right. Well, maybe if we could find a way to make the transport a little less traumatic." Connor said thoughtfully.

"Traumatic? I know you guys said it wasn't fun, but this is the first I've heard of it being traumatic." Max cut in.

` "It was horrible. After all, it did leave us hurt enough to keep us out for for three days." Trey pointed out.

"Imagine falling, but with no sound or color, and feeling like you're being turned inside out at the same time, and the whole time it feels like the wind is trying to shred you into millions of tiny pieces. That is basically what we went through." Connor explained.

"So, in other words, it's loads of not fun" Trey said.

She looked at the two of them with a concerned look on her face.

"Wow, that does sound kind of traumatic." Max admitted.

"Exactly. Anyway, we should get out of here. People are starting to look at Trey now that that duel is over. You really shouldn't have summoned the FGD you know." Connor said.

"Yeah let's go. And Connor? Drop it. I'm sure people will drop it eventually. There can't be too many people who saw that duel." Trey said.

0

That night, in Max's hotel room.

Trey stretched out on the couch.

"What a great day." he said.

Max stared at him as she walked out of the kitchenette with a drink.

"Move over so I can sit down." She told him.

Suddenly, both Trey's and Connor's phones alerted them that they had received a message. They both looked at Max.

"What? I didn't send you any message." she said.

"But you are the only person with our numbers. At least in this world anyway." Trey said.

Connor pulled his phone out and looked at it.

"It isn't from her, Trey. It's from an unknown number." Connor said, "It just says: 'They're coming.'"

"We're coming? What kind of message is that?" Max asked.

"How should I know? We don't even know where this stuff came from!" Connor replied.

"Weird. I wonder who sent it. Hang on let me try something." Trey said.

He walked over to a computer and plugged the phone in. He pressed a few keys and opened up a command prompt.

"What are you doing?" Max asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say he was running a trace to find the source of the signal that sent the number," Connor replied.

"Wait, on top of all of this, he's a hacker too?" Max replied, "Gimme a break."

"I don't like that word, but basically, yes." Trey said. "I never do it for illegal reasons. Well, unless you consider tracing the number of a random person who apparently has insider information on the two of us illegal. Which it technically is, but that's irrelevant. I am more than justified on this."

Max slammed her palm into her forehead, "I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore. You know what? No matter what happens, I'm not going to be surprised anymore. If I keep getting surprised your stunts, I'll end up having a heart attack."

"You say that now." Connor said.

"There. Got it. It says it came from a nearby building. What do you say we go check it out?" Trey said.

"You know what, sure let's go," Max said.

"Wait, Max, as much as I appreciate your help, and believe me, I do, I think you should stay here," Connor said.

"What? Why?" she replied.

"Because, this is escalating quickly, and it could get dangerous very fast, and really, so far this doesn't involve you," Connor answered.

"Oh, and if it did, I suppose you'd be just fine on your own?"she countered.

"Actually, yes. I've studied martial arts for 8 years and even developed a bit of my own, and Trey… well…"

"I can poke people." Trey broke in.

"What?" Max asked.

"Trey knows pressure points, and can use them very well," Connor explained.

"I can knock someone out by shaking their hand." Trey said with a grin.

"Oh. Well, fine I see your point, but still, I'm going with you," she said.

"But why?" Connor asked.

"Because, you guys are my responsibility. I found you, I brought you to the hospital and I've been with since you got here. Besides, at least hanging around you guys, I'll never get bored," she answered.

"...Fine. But if it does get dangerous, you back off, and let us handle it, ok?" Connor said.

"Fine," she responded.

0

At the nearby building.

"Well, it looks like a bakery to me. At least it isn't a warehouse." Trey said. "What does that say Connor?"

"Saikyo Bakery, Home of the Saikyo Bun," he answered.

"Well, it looks closed. Lets try around back." Max said.

They walked around to the back, and were surprised to see that the back door was open and that the light was on. Trey walked up to the door and looked inside.

"I don't see anyone." He said. Then he called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

They heard a noise, then a strange man walked around the corner. He was tall, wore a business suit, and had a duel disk on his arm. When he spoke, it was with an accent that none of them had ever heard before.

"I did not expect you to find me so quickly. Impressive." The man said. Then he looked at Trey. "Your hacking skills must have improved."

"I don't like that... Hey! How did you know that I'm a hacker?" Trey said.

"How else could you have found me?" he asked.

"What you said implies that you knew before just now. Stop trying to dodge the question." Trey replied.

"Very clever. And I see you brought along a friend. Certainly, unexpected." the man said. Then he lifted his duel disk. "Duel me. If you win I will give you something that should help you understand your situation."

"Your on!" Trey said. He went to lift his duel disk, but Max interrupted him.

"Hang on Trey. He seems to know to much about you. What if he planned for your deck? I'll duel him." Max said.

"Huh? Okay, I guess that makes sense." Trey said. somewhat surprised.

Max lifted her duel disk. "Let's do this!"

"Very well, Please, let us move this inside." the man said. "And please, call me Ulric."

0

"Okay Ulric. Since you challenged us, I'll take the first move." Max said as she drew six cards.

(Max: 8000, Ulric: 8000)

"Well, first I will summon Wildcat Lion in attack mode, set two cards face down and activate Poison Fangs." she said.

The large lion appeared on the field with the two facedown cards behind it. (2000 ATK)

"A level four with 2000?" Ulric asked.

"My Lion may be strong, but he can't deal damage while he's alone. I end my turn." Max said.

"Very well. I draw. I activate the field spell Future Visions." Ulric said.

Max waited, and then with a confused look on her face, "Nothing happened?"

"I summon Fortune Lady Light in attack mode." He said.

A woman appeared on the field wearing a yellow dress with a black leotard that was revealing quite a bit of skin. (200 ATK)

"Umm, I thought that the Fortune Ladies had more modest outfits than that." Trey said.

"These are what the original releases looked like" Connor said.

"What are these Fortune Lady cards? I've never seen them before. And why is that one so weak?" Max asked.

"In our world, not to many people used them because they start out weak at first. They get stronger the longer they are on the field. Right now, Light is only level one." Trey explained.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't give away all of my secrets." Ulric broke in. "Also, the effect of Future Visions activates. Whenever a monster is Normal Summoned, it is banished until the Standby Phase of the person who summoned it."

"But that will leave you wide open next turn when I summon another monster!" Max exclaimed.

"No, it won't. The effect of Fortune Lady Light also activates. When she is removed from the field by a card effect, I get to Special Summon a Fortune Lady from my deck. Like Fortune Lady Fire." Ulric said.

Fortune Lady Light vanished in a flash, and then was replaced by a similar woman, dressed much the same, but in a red dress and with a different hairstyle. (400 ATK)

"Oh, that isn't good." Connor said. "When Fire is summoned by a Fortune Lady's effect, her effect activates."

"What effect?" Max asked.

"Allow me to explain." Ulric said. "When Fire is Special Summoned in attack position by the effect of a Fortune Lady, she lets me target one monster you control and destroy it. Furthermore, when she does you take damage equal to its attack score."

"Wait, what?" Max said.

Fortune Lady Fire aimed her wand at Wildcat Lion and shot a blast of fire at it. It burst into pixels, but the fire reshaped itself into Wildcat Lion and attacked Max, knocking her over.

"Ouch." Max said as she got up.

"Now, I will enter my battle phase, and Fortune Lady Fire will attack you directly." Ulric said.

Fortune Lady Fire shot another burst of fire at Max.

She frowned. "Well, at least that one didn't hurt as bad."

"With that I will set two cards and end my turn." Ulric said.

(Max: 5600, Ulric: 8000)

"Wait! I chain both of my Trap cards to the end of your turn. I activate Roaring Earth and Howl of the Wild" Max said as her two trap cards lifted up.

"Very well." Ulric said.

"Draw! First, I activate Ayers Rock Sunrise. This allows me to Special Summon a Beast-Type monster from my graveyard. Normally, it would also weaken all of your monsters as well, but without anything else in my graveyard it won't. So, return my Lion!" Max said.

The massive cat returned to the field. (2000 ATK)

"Then I will Summon my Wildcat Cheetah!" she said.

The smaller yellow spotted cat appeared on the field before vanishing in a flash of light.

"My Future Visions card banished any monster you normal summon. Don't forget." Ulric said.

"I didn't. Anyway, since my Cheetah was actually summoned, I can make another Normal Summon as long as I summon a Wildcat monster. I summon Wildcat Leopard as well."

A black cat about the size of Cheetah appeared on the field before vanishing in a flash of light.

"Now, my Lion attacks your Fortune Lady Fire! The battle damage may be reduced to 0, but thanks to my Howl of the Wild, you take 300 points of damage, and thanks to Poison Fang, you take 500 more damage." Max said.

Wildcat Lion pounced of Fortune Lady Fire. Then, Ulric was surrounded by the red aura from Howl of the Wild and poison fang. He grimaced.

(Max: 5600, Ulric: 7200)

"Seeing as you have no more cards in your hand, I believe it is my turn." Ulric said as he drew a card.

"Now, during my Standby Phase, Fortune Lady Light returns to my field. Also, since it is my Standby Phase, her effect activates and she becomes level two." Ulric said.

The yellow Fortune Lady appeared, and an aura surrounded her for a moment. (200 400 ATK)

"She won't be staying for long though. I sacrifice her to summon Fortune Lady Dark!" Ulric said as Light vanished.

A third woman appeared. This one was wearing a purple dress and had long purple hair, and just like the other two, she had the revealing black leotard on underneath it. She vanished in a flash of light.

"Now I will activate Double Summon, and use it to summon another Fortune Lady Fire," Ulric said. "She is banished by Future Visions, and I will use the Fortune's Future spell card to move her to my graveyard and draw two cards. I end my turn."

"Fine. I draw! And since it is my Standby Phase, Cheetah and Leopard return to me." Max said.

The two cats appeared on the field. (C: 1200 ATK; L: 900 ATK)

"Now, my Leopard is a tuner, and even though he is only level two, if I use him to summon a Wildcat monster, he is treated as level three!" Max said."I tune together my Wildcat Cheetah and my Wildcat Leopard.

"Fury of the wilds, Killer who takes its prey in a single strike! Tear through that which would do you harm! Descend upon your enemies!"

(*3 + *4 = *7)

Synchro Summon: Wildcat Panthera Onca!

An eight-foot tall humanoid black panther appeared on the field. Its pelt was golden black, and it stood taller than the Wildcat Lion. As it prowled out onto the field, a subtle change came over the Lion. (2800 ATK)

"I set one card, and my two cats attack you directly!" Max said.

"Not so fast." Ulric said. "I activate Negate Attack."

"Well, I set one card and end my turn." Max said.

"I draw." Ulric said.

"I chain my Horn of the Phantom Beast to your draw and equip it to my Lion." Max said.

The phantom horns appeared on the Lion's head. (2000 2800 ATK)

"During my Standby Phase, Fortune Lady Dark returns to the field, and her effect activates." Ulric said.

The dark Fortune Lady returned to the field, and was surrounded with a dark aura. (2000 2400 ATK)

"I summon Fortune Lady Light. Future Visions removes her from play and her effect activates. I will use it to summon Fortune Lady Earth."

A new Fortune Lady appeared. This one wearing a brown dress appeared. (2400 ATK)

"I set one card and end my turn." Ulric said.

"I draw. My Lion attacks your Fortune Lady Dark!" Max said.

"Not quite." Ulric said. "I activate Slip of Fortune! I negate the attack and remove Fortune Lady Dark from play until my next Standby Phase."

"Hmm, Fine! Panthera will attack Earth!" Max said.

The Panther charged at Earth, ripping her to pieces.

"Wow, that was kind of … vicious." Max said, surprised.

"Well what did you expect with a Synchro Chant like that?" Connor asked nonchalantly.

"I've never seen him attack that fiercely before. It's like he's angry." Max said. "Anyway, Ulric, you take 1100 damage from Poison Fang and Howl of the Wild."

The aura surrounded Ulric and he groaned.

(Max: 5600, Ulric: 5700)

"Hey Trey? I don't remember Max being this good, do you?" Connor whispered.

"Not remotely. I thought she was dueling like the guys in the show who made bad moves to get extra dialogue time," Trey replied.

"I can hear you, ya know! I was holding back then," Max snapped.

"I draw. My Fortune Lady Dark returns to the field. Her level increases by one due to her effect," Ulric said, completely ignoring the previous exchange.

The dark Fortune Lady reappeared again. (20002400 ATK)

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!"

The shining Swords fell and surrounded Max's Monsters, holding them in place.

"I summon Fortune Lady Light. When she goes I summon Fortune Lady Water, and activate another Fortune's Future. Due to Water's effect, I draw four cards instead of two."

The yellow Fortune Lady appeared and vanished, and was replaced by one wearing a blue dress. (1200 ATK)

Ulric made four draws. "I end my turn."

"I draw. It is time to take a risk. I activate Card of Demise."

"You own that card?" Ulric asked. "And you would actually risk using it?"

"Now I draw until I have 5 cards in my hand, but in five turns I lose my entire hand." Max said as she drew 4 more cards.

"Now, I activate Monster Reincarnation. I send Wildcat Snow Leopard to the graveyard to retrieve my Wildcat Cheetah." Max said. "Then I summon it. It may be banished because of Future Visions, but I can use its effect to summon a second one. Then I use that one's effect to summon Wildcat Tiger."

The two cheetahs and the massive Tiger appeared on the field and then vanished.

"Then I set one card and end my turn." Max said.

"Congratulations. You managed to use up your entire hand. I draw." Ulric said. "Fortune Lady Light returns, and my three Fortune Ladies increase their levels by one."

Fortune Lady Dark was surrounded by a dark aura, while Water was surrounded by a blue one, and Fortune Lady Light reappeared and was surrounded by a yellow aura.. (D: 24002800 ATK; W: 12001500 ATK; L: 200400 ATK)

"I sacrifice my Fortune Lady Light to summon another Fortune Lady Earth. I end my turn."

The brown Fortune Lady appeared, and then vanished in a flash of light.

"I draw. My three cats return, and once I do, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your field spell." Max said as her facedown card lifted up.

The two Cheetahs and the large orange striped Tiger appeared on the field. (C: 1200 ATK*2; T: 1700 ATK)

"I activate my facedown card, Bending Destiny. Since I have a Fortune Lady card on the field, I can negate your spell card and remove it from play. You will get it back on your next Standby Phase."

"Huh, well in that case I activate my field spell, Wildcat Savannah." Max said.

The store was replaced with an open desert, and forests and other biomes were visible off in the distance.

"This field represents the homes of the various cats in my deck. The home field advantage it gives grants all Wildcat monsters 300 ATK and DEF." Max said.

The four cats on the field got stronger. (Lion: 28003100 ATK; Onca: 28003100 ATK; Cheetah: 12001500 ATK*2; Tiger: 1700 2000 ATK)

"Now I summon Wildcat Jaguar." Max said. "And I will sacrifice my Tiger and both of my Cheetahs to summon one of my favorites. I bring out Wildcat Leo Atrox!" Max said.

A smaller jaguar appeared that seemed to be a shadow of the humanoid beast that was already on the field. (900 1200 ATK)

"Wait, with three tributes? You summoned it with two against me." Trey said.

"Yeah, but now I can use his effect. Since I summoned him with three tributes, I can draw until I have five cards in my hand." Max said as she drew five cards.

The enormous cat walked out onto the field and roared. The sound was so loud that the Fortune Ladies cringed. (3000 3300 ATK)

"Now I use my second copy of Ayers Rock Sunrise to bring Wildcat Snow Leopard back from my graveyard." Max said.

The white leopard returned to the field. (1300 1600 ATK)

"All three of your monsters lose 800 ATK from Ayers, and both of my two smaller cats are level 3." She said.

The three Fortune Ladies were covered in a red aura. (L: 400 0 ATK; W: 1500 700 ATK; D: 2800 2000 ATK)

"I open the Overlay Network. I overlay my two level three monsters to summon Wildcat Acinonyx Pardinensis." Max said.

A massive golden colored cheetah walked out onto the field.(2100 2400 ATK)

"That is quite a name" Ulric said.

Don't worry. He won't be staying for long." Max said. "I tribute Wildcat Leo Atrox, Wildcat Acinonyx Pardinensis, and Wildcat Panthera Onca to summon the strongest monster I have in this deck. It is so strong that it can only be called out by tributing a Wildcat Xyz monster, a Wildcat Synchro monster, and WIldcat Leo Atrox after he has been summoned with a triple tribute."

"This should be good. She hinted that she had something stronger than Leo, but we haven't gotten a chance to see it in action." Connor said. "And with a summoning condition like that, I'm not surprised."

The three massive monsters disappeared and a mist rolled over the field.

"Umm, Max? What's happening?" Trey asked.

"Don't worry, it is just an effect that happens when you summon this monster while this field is in play. After all, going thousands of years back in time isn't easy." Max said.

"What do you mean, back in time?" Ulric asked.

"The monster I'm summoning is the origin species of feline. It is the first, and has genetic ties to every known species of cat discovered today. Its name, Wildcat Proailurus!" Max yelled.

Out of the fog a shadow appeared. It approached slowly, and then it cleared revealing a small cat, about twice the size of a housecat. Its fur was dark gray, and it had a savage look to it. (4000 4300 ATK)

"Ummm, small." Trey said.

"Yeah, but look at its score!" Connor exclaimed. "It's almost as strong as Neo Galaxy-Eyes!"

"As what?" Max asked.

"Eh, don't worry about it. You'll see Trey use it sooner or later."

"It certainly is not very intimidating." Ulric said.

"Maybe its effect will be." Max said. "When he is summoned I'm allowed to Special Summon as many Beast-Type monsters from my hand, deck, or graveyard as I can. I will bring out two Wildcat Smilodon Fatalis and one Wildcat Panthera Blytheae from my deck!"

Two massive Saber-Toothed Tigers and a massive Snow Leopard appeared on the field. (2400 2700 ATK*2; 2300 2600 ATK)

"That is an impressive field presence, but I don't see how you expect to get past my swords." Ulric said.

"Did you forget that I have four cards in my hand?" Max asked. "But that isn't the point. When Panthera Blytheae is summoned, he can destroy 1 face-up Spell or Trap card you control. Like your Swords!"

Blytheae roared, and the swords shattered.

Ulric frowned.

"Now, Proailurus, attack Fortune Lady Light, and end this duel!" Max shouted.

The small cat leapt at Light and shredded through it in a second.

(M: 5600, U: 1400)

"Nice try, but I still have Life Points left after that attack. You spoke too soon." Ulric said.

Max smiled. "Did you really forget about Poison Fang and Howl of the Wild? You still have another 2000 damage to take."

Ulric glowed with a red aura, and then grunted as it sapped the rest of his strength.

(M: 5600, U: 0)

"Not bad. Congratulations on your win. I promised to give you something to help." Ulric said as he reached behind a desk. "Unfortunately for you, I do not have to keep my word."

He pulled a strange looking machine from behind the desk and pointed it at Connor. He fumbled around in his pocket for something, but before he could, Ulric fired. A red beam of energy screamed towards him. Suddenly, an image of Kizan appeared in front of him and blocked the beam with his sword.

Kizan turned around and screamed, "Run!"

The three of them turned and ran towards the door. When they got to the door, they realized it was closed.

"Break down the door Connor!" Trey shouted.

"I can't! It's a metal door in a metal frame!" Connor shouted back.

Suddenly, a pure white horn burst through the door, and ripped it apart. When the door fell, a large red dragon with a single, pure white horn was hovering outside of the door.

A voice came from the dragon, "Go, quickly!"

Trey stood there in shock, "White-Horned Dragon…"

"Trey! Move!" Max shouted, shoving him from behind.

Ulric walked out from behind the corner and took aim at Max.

"Connor, what are you looking for?" Trey asked.

After fumbling in his pocket some more, his face lit up.

"This," he replied.

He pulled out a gloved hand, held it above his head, and made a fist. As he did a spherical barrier of semi-transparent interlocking hexagonal plates popped up around the three of them, blocking Ulric's latest blast.

"Fire all you want, nothing is getting past this," he yelled to Ulric.

"I see you finished it, and indeed, you are correct. So then, I guess I will take my leave. My job here is finished anyway," Ulric replied, and then he vanished.

"Connor, when did you finish that thing!?" Trey asked.

"Well since Solid Holograms are a thing here, I piggybacked off the tech in the Duel Disks. I had to amp it up a bit, but it works," he replied.

"Wait… What?" Max asked.

"What, you thought Trey was the only one with a useful tech skill? I'm an engineering student with an IQ of 162," Connor replied.

"Yeah, and I thought you said you weren't going to be surprised by or tricks anymore." Trey said.

"Yes, I did say that. then you went and pulled out some crazy hologram bullcrap that can block lasers," Max said.

Connor just grinned.

Trey looked at the dragon and the samurai. "Hey, Connor? Are these guys more of those solid holograms of yours?"

"Huh?" he asked turning around, "Ummm, no. This thing isn't even done yet. To be perfectly honest, we were lucky the barrier even worked."

"That can be explained, but first we should get out of here." said a voice from behind them.

"What? Who is th… SOUL!?" Max shouted.

"Who?" Connor asked.

"Nevermind that, we need to get out of here. Now!" Kizan shouted.

"O...ok," The three replied, and they turned and ran.

0

That night, at the hotel.

"So you guys are Duel Spirits?" Connor asked.

"Correct. We have been with all of you ever since you two arrived here," said the mystery Spirit, "When we sensed you were in mortal danger we came to your aid."

"Ok, Now I'm speechless. I knew you guys were real but to think that you were with us is a whole other ball game," Trey responded.

"Well at least something here actually surprises you two. I was beginning to wonder if anything ever would," Max commented.

"Ha ha," Trey retorted.

"Kizan, do you know what that guy's deal was? Do any of you?" Connor asked.

"No," Kizan replied.

White-Horned Dragon let out a low groan, and Soul put her hand on its head.

"Apologies, but you must excuse us, this is the first time we've ever manifested, so it has taken quite a bit out of us," She said.

"Um, yeah. Ok. Rest up," Connor said.

The three of them faded out, and returned to the decks from which they came from.

"God that was weird," Trey said.

"No kidding," Connor replied.

They sat for a while, till Max broke the silence.

"I'm … gonna go back to my room. I need some rest," she said.

"Yeah, you do that. Good night," Connor said.

"Yeah," she replied.

When she left, the two friends sat there for a while longer. Eventually, Connor slammed his palm into his forehead.

"Crap," he said.

"What?" Trey asked.

"I know it's completely unrelated to what we just went through, but we are almost out of money."

"Right. Well, could we enter another tournament?"

"Nah, we do that, the prize money only lasts a few days."

"So we just keep doing it. Besides, we always win."

"I know, but eventually no one will want play in the same tournament as us because they feel they have no chance and our income dries up."

"Ok, then let's go sell some of our extra cards? We have some of the rarest cards in this world."

"That … is actually a good idea. Tomorrow we go to the biggest card shop we can find, and I'll sell them one of my copies of one of my rarer cards."

"Great."

"Ok then. I'm going to bed."

"See you tomorrow Connor."

When he reached the door, Trey turned.

"Out of all the Monsters in your deck, it just had to be Kizan,"he said.

As he left Connor burst into laughter.

0

When Max left, she went back to her room and fell on her bed. She turned over on her side and pulled out a card.

"Hey Soul, you there?" she asked.

After a few moments, a voice responded.

"Yes," It responded.

"Just checking."

"Is there something you wanted to ask?"

"I guess."

"Well…?"

"If you've always been here, why now? Why show up now?"

"Ah. I figured this would come up."

"So, then I guess you have an answer then."

"Indeed I do."

"Well…?"

Soul paused for a moment.

"Maxine, I have wanted to do this for so long. I have always wanted to be here. For you. But no matter how hard I tried, I could never reach you. Because no matter how much you said you wanted me to be there, somewhere in the back of your mind, you fully believed I never would. And that formed a barrier that would have blocked me out forever. But when those two fell out of the sky, and started skewing your perception of what was possible, that barrier started to crack. And the more they stayed, the more it broke. Then, when that man pointed his weapon at you, I finally made my push. I finally made it to you. That is why it only happened now."

Max took a few moments to soak this news in.

"Well. As speeches go, that … was … actually pretty good. I-I should get to bed." she said.

"Ok. Good night."

Max put her cards away, and turned over. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

CHAPTER END

Fan-made cards used in the chapter:

Wildcat Snow Leopard - Level 3 - WATER - Beast - 1300 ATK/800 DEF - This card cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Wildcat Jaguar - Level 3 - EARTH/Tuner - Beast - 900 ATK/700 DEF - This card can attack your opponent directly

Wildcat Leopard - Level 2 - LIGHT - Beast/Tuner - 900 ATK/ 700 DEF - You may treat this card's level as one higher when it is used to Synchro Summon a Beast-Type Monster.

Wildcat Smilodon Fatalis - Level 5 - LIGHT - Beast - 2400 ATK/ 1200 DEF - When this card attacks a monster in defense position, deal piercing damage to your opponent.

Wildcat Panthera Blytheae - Level 5 - WATER - Beast - 2300 ATK/ 1800 DEF - When this card is Special Summoned, destroy 1 face up Spell/Trap card your opponent controls.

Wildcat Proailurus - Level 12 - EARTH - 4000 ATK/3500 DEF - Beast - This card may not be Normal Summoned or Set. It may only be Special Summoned by Tributing one face-up "Wildcat Leo Atrox" that was Summoned with three Tributes as well as one "Wildcat" Xyz monster and one "Wildcat" Synchro monster and cannot be Special Summoned in other ways. When this card is successfully Special Summoned, you may Special Summon as many Beast-Type monsters as possible from your Hand, Deck, or Graveyard, ignoring summoning conditions, so long as those monsters were not used to summon this card, or are named "Wildcat Proailurus". Once per turn, you can sacrifice all other monsters you control to deal damage equal to half of their combined original attack ATK points. This damage is treated as battle damage. This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect.

Wildcat Acinonyx Pardinensis - Rank 3 - Xyz - WIND - 2100 ATK/2000 DEF - 2 level 3 "Wildcat" - Beast - While this card has an Xyz material, when it destroys an opponent's monster by battle, it may attack a second time. During your turn, you may detach one Xyz material from this card, and if you do this card must attack each monster your opponent controls once each. This card may not attack your opponent directly the turn you activate this effect.

Wildcat Panthera Onca - Level 7 - Synchro - DARK - 2800 ATK/2200 DEF - 1 Tuner, 1 or more "wildcat" non tuner - Beast-Warrior - Whenever this card attacks an opponent's monster, destroy that monster after damage calculation.


	6. Chapter 5

**0**

 **Chapter 5: Setting Up Shop**

 **0**

 _Hey, sorry about the delay on the story. We have been kind of busy, and haven't really been able to do any work._

 _ **The Next Day**_

When Connor woke up that morning, he went over to his backpack and pulled out his card binder. Even in his home world there were a few cards here worth a pretty penny. A Ghost Rare Stardust Dragon for one thing. He flipped through the binder and came to one card. He remembered that it was incredibly rare in this world. Only 12 printed copies rare. He grinned.

Then he heard a knock on his door.

"Coming!"

The door opened.

"No need," Trey said.

*Sigh* "Really? You hacked the door locks?"

"What?"

"Nothing."

He walked in and sat on the couch.

"Don't get too comfortable, remember? We gotta get going." Connor told him.

"I remember. Did you pick which card to sell?"

"On the binder."

Trey looked over at it.

"Dude, really? That one?"

"Mm-hm"

"Ok then. Where're we selling it?"

"You'll see. Let's go."

Connor turned to leave.

"Wait! Aren't we gonna wait for Max?" Trey asked.

He stopped short.

"No. I figured she would probably need a little rest, given yesterday's events." he replied.

"True enough. Let's go."

The two left his room, and Connor locked his door, and as they turned around-

"Now just where do you two think you're going?"

Connor winced.

"Morning Max," Connor said, "We were just heading out to go get some more money."

"Oh, and you didn't want me coming because…?"

"Well, I thought you could use some rest, you know, after almost getting a hole burned through you and all."

" I appreciate the thought, but I'm fine. Dwelling on the bad only makes it harder on you."

Connor paused.

"Ok, come on." he said.

"Oh, like you could have stopped me."

"Don't tempt me."

 **0**

They left the hotel, and started walking towards the card shop Connor picked out. It was the most reputable card shop in the city, and definitely big enough to have the funds required to buy the card he had in mind, especially being the world headquarters of its franchise. It was a bit far from their hotel, but that didn't matter too much to them.

After about an hour …

"Well, here we are," Connor said.

They were in front of a 2 story building with its incredible facade listing its name as Gold Mine TCG.

"A card store? Why are we here?" Max asked.

"Like Connor said. To make money." Trey answered.

"How?"

"Max, come on, it's not that hard to figure out," Connor said patronizingly.

He walked in, completely overlooking all the display cases, and headed straight for the front desk. The man there was about 5'10, floppy brown hair, green eyes, mid 30's, and a bit on the pudgy side. His name tag said his name was Tommy. He was sitting in a chair behind the sales desk, reading a book. When he saw Connor and company walking towards him, he got up.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes as a matter of fact. I was hoping to sell a rare card in my possession. " Connor told him.

"Ok, how rare are we talking here, Mirror Force, Dark Magician, what?"

"Um, a _little_ bit south of Blue-Eyes."

He stopped short.

"Ok, you have my attention."

Connor reached into his pocket and pulled out his card. after holding it for a moment, he placed it on the table so Tommy could read it. When he did, he fell back into his chair with shock,

"That's … th-that's…" he stuttered.

"One copy of Chimeratech Overdragon. Only 12 even exist." Connor replied smugly.

"How did you,..?"

"It was a gift. From my Grandmother. Unfortunately, I don't use Machines."

"That card is worth over 2 Billion Yen!"

"2.6 billion actually, I Googled it last night."

Tommy stood in shock for a few moments, awed by the value of the card in front of him. It took him a few moments, but eventually he regained his composure.

"Erm-hm. I would love to buy this card, but for cards worth that much, I have to get the permission of our CEO," he said.

"Ok."

Tommy tuned to his computer and pressed a button on the screen that Connor could read was listed as "Rare Card Line." The computer buzzed for a moment, much like a phone ringing in someone's ear, until eventually a man's face appeared. He was an old man, probably in his mid-60's, graying hair, a few wrinkles, and tan skin.

"Tommy? Well, don't waste my time, what card is someone trying to sell us?" the man asked.

"One authentic copy of Chimeratech Overdragon, sir," Tommy replied.

This gave the old man pause.

"Let me see the customer," the old man said.

"Yes sir."

Tommy turned the screen so it faced Connor.

"So you are the one who owns such a rare card?" the man asked

"Yep." Connor responded.

"If you don't mind my asking, where did you get it?"

"It was a gift. Left to me by my grandmother."

"Ah. well something so precious must be very difficult to let go of. I find myself wondering why you want to sell it."

"My grandmother was a wonderful woman. She left me this card in the hopes that it would help me find my way. It was my first card, so as I am a duelist, and a good one if I do say so myself, I would say it did. So, as callous as it may sound, this card has served its purpose. It is about time I let it go, so that maybe one day, it can do the same for someone else. And if I can let it go and make a whole bunch of money by doing so, well that's just an added bonus."

The old man smiled.

"Some very deep words from someone of your years. I had all but given up on your generation, given their increasingly inappropriate behavior. You have my respect," he said to Connor, and to Tommy, "Well, what are you waiting for? Pay the man, you have my authorization. And you know what, give him my card too."

Tommy took his bank card and started typing away on his keyboard. Trey stepped up next to Connor.

"Do you even have a bank account in this dimension?" he whispered.

"Of course I do, I wouldn't have given him my card if I didn't. I checked in on that last night," Connor replied.

Tommy turned back to them, and handed Connor back his card, as well as the old man's business card.

"Thank you for your patronage Mr. Myers, and if you ever need anything, all you need to do is call me," the old man told him.

"I will, thank you," Connor replied.

Connor put his card back in his wallet, and the three of them to walked out.

 **0**

"So now that you have an insane amount of money, what are you going to do with it?" Max asked.

"Probably buy a house," He replied.

She stopped for a minute. Then sighed and kept walking. During this, unbeknownst to them, Trey had slipped away, and it wasn't until a few minutes later during a discussion of Connor's plans for his money when Max noticed the lack of his presence.

"Hey, Connor, where did Trey go?"

Connor looked around.

"I'm … not sure. Oh, well. I'm sure he will turn up sooner or later." Connor said. "Lets not worry too much about it. We can look up real estate in the area while we wait for him to teleport back to where we are."

"He can teleport? Come on!"

"Of course he can't. But he can ping our cell phones and find us in seconds, and he's such a sneaky little prick, that I'm the only person he can't get the drop on, and even I can't always see him coming. So that's basically the same thing."

"Why do I even bother?"

"Don't ask me, I can't read minds. All of the time."

Max sighed.

 **0**

Trey walked back into the card shop, and walked up to the counter

"Hey, Tommy. Remember me?" Trey asked.

"Yeah, you were with the guy that just sold us Chimeratech. What do you need?" Tommy said.

Trey pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

"I am building a new deck. I already have the cards that are checked off, but do you have any of the ones on this list?" Trey asked.

"Let me see." Tommy said, taking the list.

"Do you have any of the other cards on the list?" Trey asked.

"Yeah, but some of these are kinda rare. It'll cost you." Tommy said.

"Do you accept trades? I can guarantee I have a couple of cards that you have probably never seen before." Trey said.

"That depends. How sure are you that I haven't seen this card before?" Tommy asked.

"Enough that I would say that if you didn't see the duel I did in the small tournament a couple of weeks ago, that not even your boss would know what it is." Trey said. "It is called Blue-Eyes Shadow Dragon."

"Um, well you're right, I've never heard of it, but I don't even think that's a real card." he replied.

Trey pulled a small binder out of his jacket. He opened it and leafed through a couple of pages. Tommy glanced inside, and paled.

Trey got to the right page and pulled out one of his three remaining copies of Blue-Eyes Shadow Dragon and handed it to him.

Tommy just looked at it. He put it on a scanner that was in the counter.

"I don't believe it. It is a real card. According to this there are only nine copies of this card in existence."

"Huh. I didn't know it was that rare. Look, I don't really care about money, but do you think that would be enough to get the cards I want?" Trey asked.

"Undoubtedly. Give me a moment, and I'll get the cards together for you." Tommy said.

"Thanks." Trey said with a smile.

 **0**

After a few hours of looking while Trey was at the card store, Connor managed to find a house and buy it. 2 floors, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, appliances, a basement that could be made into a workshop, and fully furnished. It even had a pool.

Connor moved what little stuff he actually had into the house, and sat down on the couch in the living room.

"Well, now you have a house. What next?" Max asked.

"I get to work downstairs on some of my technology. If someone carrying Ulric's level of weaponry or higher comes around, and I have a feeling they will, I want to be prepared," Connor replied.

"Ok. Well, I'll go back to my hotel, and let you get settled in to your new home."

She turned to leave.

"Why leave? We can have your stuff brought over," Connor said without even looking up.

She stopped cold.

"Oh, and why would we do that?" she asked, a little tense.

"I bought a house with three bedrooms. You figure it out," he replied, still not looking up.

"You want me to _live_ here?!" she exclaimed.

"Well technically, it is your choice, but since we can assume you are involved with whatever it is that's going on here, and if you are that makes you a target, and as you may recall, Trey and I are very good at protecting people we have gotten close to," he replied. He looked up, "Besides, it's not like you have to share a bedroom with one of us. Heck, you don't even have to share a bathroom."

She stood and stewed over that for a few seconds.

"Aghh! I hate that that makes sense. I hate even more that I don't have a counter to it," she yelled.

"That's just how we roll," Connor replied, looking down again, "I'll call the hotel."

Max slumped her shoulders and sat in the armchair across from Connor and leaned back. As soon as she did though, she sat straight up.

"What?" Connor asked.

"I think Trey's here," she answered.

"Yeah, he is, I saw him walking up the sidewalk," Connor replied, a little surprised. Then he smirked, "Guess I'm _not_ the only one he can't get the drop on."

Trey knocked on the door.

"C'mon in! Door's open," Connor shouted.

"So now that that is all sorted out, which room goes to who?"

Max sat for a second.

"For a second, I was almost surprised at how you knew exactly what we were talking about," she said flatly.

"I turned on the microphone in Connor's phone. Heard the whole thing," Trey replied.

"Did I ask?"

"No but I wanted to tell you anyway."

"Of course you did," she replied.

"Yep. Seriously though, who's sleeping where?" He asked.

"I'm taking the upstairs bedroom, you two split the guest bedrooms over there," Connor said, pointing past the living room.

"Hey, why do you get the big bedroom?" Trey asked.

"Um, because I bought the house?"

"Fiiiine," Trey replied with a sigh, "I'm gonna take a nap."

"You do that," Connor replied, "My cab is here."

"Cab? When did you call a cab?" Max asked.

"While I was settling in. I had to call one cuz I need clothes, I need to buy groceries, and I need materials for some of my tech designs. See ya!" Connor answered.

He walked out, locking the door behind him.

"Bye," Max said, though since no one could hear her, she might as well not have.

Time passed, and Max just sat and watched TV, since she really had nothing better to do. About an hour later, a courier came by, having brought her things over from the hotel. She put it all in her room and decided to take a walk.

She left the house, locking the door since Connor had given her a key, and just started walking.

" _I don't even understand half of what's going on anymore,"_ she thought to herself, " _We have people who have cards that shouldn't even exist, a psychopath with a laser gun trying to kill us, I have a Duel Spirit, and now I'm living in a house with two people from an alternate dimension and now have more money than they could ever need. I'm almost afraid to ask, but what the hell's going to happen next?"_

She kept walking, and eventually came upon a familiar spot.

This spot was not special, at least, not in a way that anyone else knew. It was just a random stretch of sidewalk that was just like any other. In fact, the only reason it stood out at all, is because of who she met here. After all, this was the place where Trey and Connor fell into her world.

" _You know, I will admit that some of this has been exciting, but is it selfish to wish for one day of normality again? Just one day? I mean really, some of this is fun, but i'm seriously starting to worry about having a heart attack from all of this."_

She bent down to look at the sidewalk. There were still traces of blood and broken concrete from where the two of them hit the ground.

" _Why did you two come here? What brought you here? How are you involved in whatever this is?"_ she asked herself.

She stood up, and started walking again. After a while she got a text on her phone from Connor.

" **Where are you?"** he asked.

She started to reply when she saw the time. She had been walking for 3 hours.

" **Relax, I'm on my way back now. I just went to take a walk,"** she replied.

" **Good. I'll get started on dinner now."**

Max looked at the message with a questioning look. Then she put her phone away with a sigh.

 **0**

Connor had been home for about an hour. Once he put the groceries away and his new clothes in his room, He went downstairs and set up his workshop. None of it took that long, he managed the whole thing by himself. He spent the next half hour putting some of the finishing touches on his hologram gauntlet, having since upgraded it from glove form.

He got the barrier function working, and even added a few offensive functions. He was thinking of what to call it when Trey came down.

"Thought I might find you down here," he said.

"Really? What gave it away?" Connor replied, still working on his gauntlet.

"Well I know you. Hell, as far as our parents are concerned, we are the same person."

"Hah! I remember."

"So, how far are you with that thing?" Trey asked, pointing at the gauntlet.

"Pretty far. I've got the barrier setting working, and I've made a bit of progress with the weapon system."

"Really? What can it do so far?"

"Well, I can make knives out of thin air, and the swords and other things shouldn't be too far behind."

"Dang, how far are you going to take it?"

"This far."

Connor pulled up a design schematic on his new laptop and showed it to Trey. Trey looked it over, with a bit of amazement.

"That is seriously some cool stuff, but don't you think your going a bit too far?" Trey asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because if I'm reading this right, this design could wipe out a tanks in one hit. That is a bit overboard even for us."

"Yes, and if it were just us, I would agree. But it's not, not since Max officially joined the team, and I don't want anyone else getting hurt."

"Oh, so _that's_ what it is."

Connor stopped for a second.

"I can almost _see_ the disbelief coming off of you. What is it?" he asked.

"You really like Max don't you?"

Connor stopped for a second.

"Trey, you know why I would. She looks just like ..."

He stopped himself and choked back a tear.

"Yeah, you're right, she does," Trey stated.

He started walking back upstairs.

"Oh, by the way, she's has been out for a while, you might want to check on her."

"Got it. Hey after dinner, could you come back down here and check my math? You know how I get with my work."

"Sure."

Trey left.

Connor kept working for a full minute, before he picked up his phone and texted Max.

When he knew she was ok, he got up and went upstairs to get some water boiling on the stove.

" _Maybe I'll make pizza."_ he thought.

 **0**

Max started to walk back to Connor's house.

"Excuse me, miss. Could you help me with something?" a distinctly English accented voice asked.

Max turned around. Behind her was an elderly looking English man.

"Sure, what do you need?" Max said.

Suddenly she heard a click, and felt something press into her back. The man in front of her pulled out a second gun, a small pistol, and smiled evilly.

"I need you to come with me. I have some business with some friends of yours. If you scream or try to run, we will shoot you. However, we will make sure not to kill you, so it will be quite painful." the man said.

Max paled, and was led to a grey van and was shoved inside.

 **0**

After two hours, Connor had kept working on his Holo-Gauntlet, adding in dozens of offensive functions for close range,two long range attack functions, as well as building a second gauntlet. He started getting worried. Max still wasn't back, two hours later.

"Trey!" he yelled, "Come here!"

Trey practically ran down the stairs, his phone already in his hands..

"Pinging Max's phone now," he said.

"I hadn't even asked you yet," Connor said, confused.

"I know, but you are forgetting how well I know you."

His phone dinged.

"Got her location," he said.

He rushed over to the Computer and pulled up a map.

"Pulling it up now."

A red dot appeared on the bottom left corner of the map.

"And I have no idea where that is," he said.

"Yeah, you don't, but I do," Connor returned, "That's The Daimon, sort of like the high crime / sketchy area of Neo Domino. Normally, residents not from there steer clear of it. If she's there, it can't be good."

 **0**

The moment she was put in the van, the man behind her blindfolded her and tied her hands. She tried figuring out where she was based on turns and such, but her panic made her lose track. Her captors didn't say a word the entire way. After what felt like forever waiting in the dark, the van stopped and people in the van started moving. She was grabbed and forced to walk and was lead to a chair. She just sat in the dark waiting. It was almost completely silent. Occasionally she could hear water moving, but the smell gave away where she was.

She could smell grime, scummy liquid, dead animals, among other things. All of this told her she was in The Daimon, This unsettled her a bit, but after a minute she realized that Connor was expecting her back, and her phone was still in her pocket,so they probably would find her soon enough.

Then it hit her. Why didn't they take her phone? Even an ametuer kidnapper knows that cell phones can be tracked. But when they searched her in the van, they didn't bother to take her phone. Why? She pondered that question for a minute, and couldn't come up with an answer. It seemed like a simple oversight, but these people had to know that.

She paled. If they knew someone would come, then this was a trap.

And she was the bait.

 **0**

"I gotta go. If she's in the Daimon, she's not there willingly, and that means that I need to bring the pain to whoever's keeping her there," Connor said, hurriedly putting on his gauntlets.

"Um, Connor, I know that you are impulsive and right now you will probably level that entire building to get to Max, but you should probably slow down a minute," Trey warned.

Connor stopped.

"Say it."

"Look, if she is being held against her will, and her phone is on her, she is more than likely bait for a trap," Trey continued.

"Already took that into account. With the adjustments and additions I've made to these things, I can knock down anything they throw at us."

"Yeah, those do look thicker all of a sudden, what'd you put in?"

"You'll see. For now, let's go. Fastest time for us to get there?"

Trey looked at the map. Connor could almost hear the math being done in his head.

"From the time we finish talking about it, we'll be there in exactly 22 minutes and 47 seconds," he said.

"You know I'll time you, right?" Connor asked.

"Of course you will."

The two of them ran out of the house. Trey ran in front, with Connor just behind him. Sometimes it amazed even Connor just how fast Trey's mind worked. He managed to make a route through a city that he'd never been to, to a place he'd never heard of, all in about 30 seconds. This was nothing. It was like a game to him.

In fact, it was probably only because of that that they managed to coordinate their fighting styles at all. They had never been in too many fights. Even in their own hometown, most people stayed away from them. They didn't look like much but between Connor's angry outbursts, and Trey's apparent insanity, most people were too scared to go near them. Despite this they had gotten into enough fights to know that no matter what was in store for them, they would be ready.

When they got there, Connor checked his watch. Trey wasn't even one second off. They came to the door of the warehouse where Max was being held. It was large warehouse, easily 40,000 square ft. It was unmarked and rust was creeping along the edges, but it still was holding together pretty well.

"How many people inside?" Connor asked.

"How should I know?" Trey asked in response.

"Well there's a window right there, maybe you should take a look."

Trey rolled his eyes, and climbed up on a nearby crate to peek inside. He looked around.

"Tough to tell, most of them are hiding. Could be 5, could be 50."

"C'mon Trey, I know you're better than that."

Trey sighed.

"12."

"Ok, they armed?"

"Yeah. Handguns, from the looks of it. Nothing too bi- wait."

"What?"

Trey held up a finger and looked closer.

"There's an older guy with them, at least 60, hanging just around Max's chair. His gun is weird."

"What's so weird about it?"

"It's too big. It has an extra long barrel, and a little part of it jutting out of the back end, so it looks like a handgun, but almost like a tonfa."

"Seriously? Maybe it's a custom job."

"Yeah but that's the same characteristics as a certain weapon our friend Ulric pulled on us."

Connor stopped, and after staring at Trey for a moment, he turned towards the door and took his stance.

"Then I guess that means it's time," he said.

He tapped a button on his gauntlet and the lights flashed. Next to him a fist the size of a tank appeared. He punched his hand forward, and the fist followed. With a massive thud, the door to the warehouse gave like tinfoil.

"Knock, knock a**holes."

The kidnappers started running at them, guns in front of them. Connor stood in front, dismissed the giant fist and clenched his fist over his head. The men surrounded them and opened fire.

The bullets bounced off of the barrier Connor summoned. When the kidnappers ran out of ammo, Connor let down the barrier, ran straight at the nearest kidnapper, came in low, squatted, spun and kicked him in the chest. The guy went flying back a few feet and hit his head on the concrete floor. Connor then called up another giant fist and punched it at the five guys on his left, sending them flying into the wall behind them.

He stood up and faced the remaining five, two of whom had reloaded.

One of the ones who hadn't yet charged him with a knife in his right hand. Connor stepped to his attacker's right, inside the his range, grabbed his wrist and chopped on his now elongated elbow, forcing his arm to close, and making the attacker stab himself. When the idiot let go of his knife, Connor took it and spun into the guy behind him, one of the guys who had reloaded, and cut into his arm, severing his nerves, making him unable to fire.

Connor chopped him on the neck and he went down. With three enemies remaining, Connor switched to long range, and just as one of the guys who was left fired, so did Connor. He raised his hand and fired a laser from his gauntlet through all of the remaining guns, cutting them in half. Finally, he steadied himself and tackled one of the remaining three, and rammed them into a nearby water tank, putting a major dent in it, and knocking him out.

While he was doing that Trey had come up behind the remaining two and, using his uncanny knowledge of pressure points, temporarily paralyzed both of them.

They both turned to face the last man, the only one who didn't charge. When they saw where he was they stopped.

"I would stop attacking if I were you. Unless you want your lovely friend here to have a hole in her head," the old man said, his gun pointed at Max's head (BTW, Max's blindfold came off during the fighting ruckus when Connor threw the knife he'd been carrying away).

"What do you want?" Connor growled, getting increasingly angry.

"Well, that is for me to know and for you to find out," he said.

The longer he held the gun to Max's head, the angrier Connor got.

"Well then what are you here for?" Trey asked, very flatly.

"To duel the both of you."

"Why?"

The man stayed silent.

"Fine, and if we say no?"

The man pressed the gun right up next to Max's head.

When he saw this, Connor snapped.

"GRRAAAAAAAAGH!" he roared.

His roar was so guttural, animalistic, and utterly bloodthirsty, it made Trey jump. Connor's hands moved into a claw like pattern. In the brief moment that Trey saw Connor's eyes, he knew that Connor was no longer in control.

Connor surged forward, almost on all fours, with claws outstretched. He swiped the man's chest, tearing through his clothes, then spun and kicked him in the same spot.

Then the strangest thing happened. the man's body split apart like a liquid around Connor's foot.

"Tsk, tsk. Temper, temper." the man said.

Connor looked the man in the eye. The man looked back and saw just how much killing intent was behind them and started shaking. Before he could fire on either of them Trey reached out to the back of Connor's neck where the spinal cord meets the base of the skull, and pressed, knocking him out. He threw Connor behind him.

"Connor, go to sleep." Trey said.

"Well, now that that is over, perhaps we can get done with this. Duel me and I'll let her go," the man said, his hand shaking almost unnoticeably.

"No. You let her go now, or I wake him up and let him kill you, and no matter how hard you hide it, I know that he scared you. Let her go, now."

After a moment, the man put his gun away, and pulled her to her feet, undid the binds on her hands, and pushed her to Trey.

"Run home," Trey told her.

She looked at the three of them, lingering a moment on Connor. Then she did as Trey told her and ran away.

"Fine. Now, we duel," Trey said, raising his Disk.

"Indeed."

"Seeing as you kidnapped my friend, I will go first." Trey said. "Is that fine?"

The old man pulled a disk off of the table next to the chair max had been in. His disk seemed almost fluid, like it was made of the same thing he seemed to be made of. Other than that, it looked like the standard model from Battle City, just gold, and shiny.

(Trey: 8000 , Old Man: 8000)

Each drew five cards, then Trey drew a sixth and looked over his hand. He frowned.

"I set three cards and activate One Day of Peace." Trey said as both he and the old man drew a card.

"Not your best hand?" the man asked as he drew another card. "That's fine. I summon Wind-Up Knight. Now, I would attack you, but with your One Day of Peace, You wouldn't take any damage. Instead, I will activate the Continuous Spell Card Wind-Up Factory and set one card of my own."

A shining knight in white armor appeared. He had a golden key sticking out of his back. As he walked out onto the field, the key in its back rotated. (1800 ATK)

Trey drew. He looked at the card, then glanced over at Connor. He was starting to worry, he shouldn't have still been unconscious. He shook his head. "I end my turn."

The old man frowned, and looked at Trey's face-down cards.

"What trap are you setting boy?" The man asked as he drew.

"This one. I activate Artifact Sanctum. From my deck I summon Artifact Beagalltach."

The reddish hologram wielding the massive red and silver sword appeared on the field. (2100 DEF) It turned and slashed through the two face-down cards on Trey's side of the field.

An orange hologram appeared holding a silver winged staff appeared next to a blue hologram wielding a massive blue and silver sword. (Caduceus 2400 DEF; Moralltach: 2100 ATK)

The old man frowned. "I… wasn't expecting your Artifacts. I am not clear on how all of their effects work. I was expecting the dragons. Would you care to enlighten me?"

Trey smiled. Moralltach rushed forward and cut through the Wind-Up Knight.

"When Moralltach is summoned during my opponent's turn, he destroys a single face-up card that my opponent controls. Also, since an Artifact monster was destroyed outside of battle, even if it was in my Spell zone, I can summon Artifact Labrys from my hand." Trey said.

A purple hologram wielding a massive axe appeared on the field. (2300 ATK)

"Well, that is unfortunate." the old man said. "I summon Wind-Up Dog."

A small blue dog with a golden key on its back appeared. The key turned around a few times. (1200 ATK)

"I also activate Double Summon. I summon Wind-Up Soldier. Because I summoned a Wind-Up monster was summoned, I can special summon Wind-Up Shark."

A small yellow robot appeared. The golden key on its back wound itself. (1800 ATK) A larger blue shark also appeared. The golden key on its back turned. (1500 ATK)

"I use the effects of all three of my monsters. My dog's level increases from three to five, and he receives a boost in his power."

The key in the Dog's back spun rapidly. (1200 1800 ATK)

"My soldier also increases his level to five and gains a boost."

The key in the Soldier's back spun rapidly as well. (1800 2200 ATK)

"And my Shark, well, his attack doesn't go up any at least."

The key in the Shark's back spun rapidly as well.

"And now, since I have three level five monsters, I can open the overlay network."

"What are you summoning? I know most of the rank 5 Xyz, but almost none of the triple material ones would work in a Wind-Up deck." Trey said.

"Well, this one isn't really any kind of a Wind-Up card. I summon the incredibly powerful Number 53: Heart-eartH!" the old man shouted.

A creature appeared on the field that could only be described as… odd. From the bottom up, it appeared to be six glowing yellow orbs arranged like the pips on a die connected by crossing silver tendrils. Connected to that was a large orange orb. A small silver head was on top of the orange orb, and two large red spikes shot up from the 'shoulders' of the creature, with two massive arms covered in a red armor plating shot out from either side. (100 ATK)

"As a side note, since I used the effect of a Wind-Up monster, I can take one from my deck, like my Wind-Up Soldier." the old man said.

"Heart-eartH. That... that isn't good. One question. How do you have a copy of Heart-eartH!? That card should be impossible to get!" Trey said.

The old man just smiled.

"I end my turn."

"Fine." Trey said as he drew another card. He looked at it.

"I set four cards, and then …"

With a start, Connor's eyes flew open, the bestial look still in his eyes. Trey was about to knock him out again when Connor held up his hand, stopping him. He held his head with his other hand, scrunching his forehead like he had a headache (which he did). Eventually, the look subsided, and Connor put his hands down and looked around.

He stopped when he saw the monster.

"Heart-eartH?" he asked, "Meh."

Trey smiled.

"Well, you obviously recognize the card, so you should know how dangerous it can be." the old man said.

"Dangerous? More like pathetic, I've dealt with much more powerful stuff than that," Connor replied.

"Huh?" the old man said, confused.

"What he is trying to say is that there are plenty of ways to deal with it. Like the one I am about to do." Trey said. "But for now, I end my turn."

"Fine, I draw." The old man said.

"Hang on. I activate Double Cyclone. I destroy my face-down Scythe and your Wind-Up

Factory. They are both destroyed, my Scythe returns to the field and stops you from summoning anything from your extra deck this round, also Caduceus lets me draw a card."

The dark blue and grey hologram wielding a massive scythe appeared. (2200 ATK)

The old man frowned. "Well, then I…"

"You don't do anything yet. I activate Artifacts Unleashed. I use my Artifact Beagalltach and my Artifact Moralltach to Xyz summon Artifact Durendal. Also, I draw another card thanks to Caduceus."

A red and blue hologram appeared, wielding the largest sword yet. It was red, blue, and silver. (2400 ATK)

The old man frowned, and looked over the cards in his hand.

"I place one card face-down and end my turn."

"What, bad hand? I draw." Trey looked over his hand.

Connor muttered a few obscenities to himself about Durendal.

"I set two cards, then I activate Sanctuary in the Sky. Just in case you happen to have Heart-eartH Dragon, his effect is essentially useless now."

The old man just stared at him.

"If I didn't know better, I would think you swapped decks just to counter me." the old man said.

"Not really, either of my decks could actually take out Heart-eartH pretty easily. It isn't really a scary monster. Anyway, I also overlay Labrys and Scythe to summon out Number 19: Freezadon."

A massive blue dinosaur covered in icy scales appeared on the field. It crouched, crossing its enormous arms in front of it. (2500 DEF)

"Now, Durendal will attack your Heart-eartH."

The old man smiled. "Heart-eartH gains 2400 Attack, making him just strong enough to fight Durendal off."

An aura surrounded Heart-eartH. (100 2500 ATK)

Suddenly, an even brighter aura shined from behind Durendal. (2400 4900 ATK)

"What!?"

Connor snickered.

"It is a card called Honest. Heart-Earth just made Durendal stronger," he said.

"I use Heart-eartH's effect, I can detach an Xyz material and Heart-eartH will survive!"

"No, he really won't. I detach a material from Freezadon to use Durendal's effect, so Heart-eartH's effect becomes destroy one spell/trap card your opponent controls. And since I only have one, it is your only target." Trey said as the face-down Artifact Sanctuary lifted up and shattered. "And since it was destroyed by you, I can destroy one card you control, like the face down card you set at the beginning of the duel."

Trey smiled as the man's Numbers Overlay Boost lifted up and shattered.

(Trey: 8000 ; Old man: 5600)

The old man just stared at Trey. "Is that all?"

Trey smiled. "I end my turn."

The old man drew a card without saying anything.

"I summon Wind-Up Magician. Since I normal summoned a Wind-Up monster, I can special summon Shark from my hand."

A robotic looking mage appeared on the field.A golden key wound itself on its back.(600 ATK)

The blue shark reappeared on the field. (1500 ATK)

"Since a Wind-Up effect activated, Magician's effect activates, allowing me to summon Wind-Up Mouse from my deck."

The golden key in Wind-Up Magician spun rapidly. A small grey mouse rolled onto the golden key in its back wound itself. (600 ATK)

"Now, I use Mouse's effect to Special Summon Wind-Up Dog from my graveyard."

The key in Mouse's back spun rapidly, and then the small dog walked onto the field, the key in its back wound up.

"Now I overlay Mouse and Dog to summon Wind-Up Zenmaines, and I overlay Shark and Magician to Summon Wind-Up Zenmaister."

The smaller Wind-Up with clawed hands appeared on the field. (2100 DEF) A larger one that appeared to have rocket boosters for feet also floated onto the field. (19002500 ATK)

"My turn is over." the old man said.

"I draw." Trey said.

"I set one card, and and I attack Zenmaines with Durendal."

"Zenmaines effect lets me save him normally, but I assume you use your card to change it?" The old man said, with an annoyed look on his face.

"Of course. I detach one material from Freezadon to change Zenmaines effect. Which on would you like to destroy?"

"The one in the middle."

Artifact Aegis lifted up and shattered.

Trey looked at the card. "I end my turn."

"I draw." The old man said. He looked at the cards in his hand. "Zenmaister attacks Durendal, and Durendal can't change Zenmaister's effect."

"I know." Trey said, frowning as Durendal shattered. "At least I don't take damage thanks to Sanctuary. In response to your attack, I activate Artifact Ignition. I destroy my face down Failnaught and he is Summoned. Also, Failnaught sets Aegis to my Spell zone from my graveyard and Ignition sets my Achilleshield from my deck. And Caduceus lets me draw one card."

A green hologram wielding a massive silver and green bow appeared on the field. (1600 DEF)

"I end my turn." The old man said.

"I draw." Trey said. "I activate Cards From the Sky. I banish my second Caduceus from hand to draw two cards. I can't special summon or enter my battle phase this turn since I did that, but that is fine. I set two cards and end my turn."

"I draw." The old man stopped. He looked at Trey.

Trey smiled. "What? Oh, you must be waiting for this. I activate my last Artifact Sanctum. I summon my last Artifact Beagalltach from my deck with it."

The familiar red hologram wielding the large red and silver sword appeared on the field. He turned and slashed through two of Trey's set cards. (2100 DEF)

"Of course, since those two cards were Achilleshield and Aegis, they get summoned.

While most Artifacts appeared gender neutral or male, the gold hologram that appeared was obviously female. She wielded a massive gold and silver shield in front of her. (2500 DEF)

Next to her, a purple hologram also appeared, wielding a medium sized purple shield. (2200 DEF)

"Aegis prevents me my Artifacts from being targeted or destroyed by card effects, while Achilleshield prevents you from targeting them for attacks. Caduceus lets me draw three cards."

The old man shook his head. "I summon Wind-Up Soldier. Also, I special summon my final Shark from my hand."

The two monster appeared on his field.

"I activate the effects of both of them, changing them to level 5, and I overlay them to summon Shark Fortress."

A massive submarine appeared, with a large round docking bay underneath it. It vaguely resembled a large shark. (2400 ATK)

"Unfortunately, Zenmaister is not strong enough to get through your frozen lizard, so I cannot quite finish you yet, but I will soon. Also, while Shark Fortress is on the field, you can only attack him. I end my turn."

"Draw! This has been fun, but I think it is about time to end it. First I overlay my Failnaught and Aegis to summon Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon, and I overlay Caduceus and Achilleshield to summon Tiras, Keeper of Genesis."

The two monsters that appeared on the field seemed to be opposites of each other. One seemed to be a black demon wearing black armor with black feathered wings, and holding a red glowing knife. The other looked like an glowing angel with golden wings wielding a longsword and a round shield.

(2600 ATK*2)

"And why stop there? Time for the full combo. I activate Photon Lead and summon my second Honest from my hand, and normal summon Effect Veiler."

The well known angel appeared next to the winged spellaster.

"Now, I tune them together to summon Armades, Keeper of Boundaries."

The third keeper appeared on the field. This one was looked fiendish like Adreus did, but was dressed in all white like Tiras. His right hand held a demonic red flame, while his left held an otherworldly blue energy. (2300 ATK)

"Umm" The old man said.

"I activate the effect of Adreus. I remove one material to destroy one face up card. Like Zenmaister."

Adreus flew at Zenmaister and slashed at it. Zenmaister shattered.

"Now, Tiras will attack Shark Fortress. Then Adreus and Armades attack you directly."

Tiras flew at Shark Fortress, slashing while Adreus slashed at the old man and Armades shot a bolt of energy at him.

(Trey: 8000 ; Old Man: 500)

"You may have Life Points left, but this duel is over. I end my turn, and Tiras destroys your face down card and loses a material." Trey said. "You have lost all of your best swarming cards. Anything you summon, I can destroy with my keepers. Armades will stop you from using any kind of traps when he attacks. You have no escape. This duel is finished. We both ran down our decks till we had nothing left. Your mistake was trying to relay on a weak card like Heart-eartH rather than use the Wind-Up cards like they were meant to be used. You can't win. Give up. It is over."

The old man drew a card, looked at it, sighed, and turned off his duel disk.

"I must say, that was very well done. Well done in d-"

He stopped when he saw Connor, who had been sitting quietly since his comments about Heart-eartH, stand up and level the gauntlet at him, the same look of hatred and rage on both of their faces.

"Shut up and sit down." Connor said sternly.

The old man threw the laser gun away, but kept standing.

"I think I'll stand. I'll be leaving soon anyway," he said.

"Like I'd let you," Connor answered.

"You won't be able to stop me," he replied, "Anyway, I'm sure you have questions. You have two minutes. Ask away."

Connor, dropped to one knee, holding his head in pain with his free hand, while keeping the gauntlet leveled at the old man. He shot a look at Trey that told him to handle the questioning,

"Well we can assume that this was a trap, and we were the target, so our question is, why?" Trey asked.

"An excellent question. We needed to see your skill level, since you were sent here to combat us," he answered.

"We? Us? Who … WHAT are you people?" Trey asked.

"We are the first. And we will be the last."

"Intentionally vague answers. Wonderful. How about a straight answer," Trey pressed.

Trey looked down at Connor. His eyes kept flashing between his normal look and the vicious one from earlier. He didn't show it, but Trey began to get nervous.

"Very well. My people are the Yilitrium. A race from beyond the stars. Aliens, is what you would call us, I believe."

Trey stood for a moment.

"Ya know, a month ago, I would have laughed at you, but after coming to an entirely different earth, my surprise threshold is so high, it is easy for me to accept that. So, why are we here?" he asked.

"Because no one on this planet has the skill or resources to match us. Whoever brought you here wanted to give this planet a fighting chance. Not a bad choice, I must say, but it is irrelevant. The next time we meet, and make no mistake, there will be a next time, we will win. And you will die. Now I must be off, I have other places to be. Good day," the old man said.

What happened next was enough to get a surprised reaction out of him. The old man's body decomposed into a metallic liquid and surged past them both, leaving Trey with a stunned look on his face. A moment later, Connor stood, in control again.

"We should leave. We made a lot of noise, and I don't feel like sticking around to fight these guys again," Trey said.

Over the sound of incoming sirens, Trey could barely hear Connor whisper back "yeah, let's go." The two left, just as quick as they arrived.

 **CHAPTER END**


	7. Chapter 6

**0**

 **Chapter 6: This Part May Actually Be Kinda Sad**

 **0**

They arrived back at the house and without a word, Connor went downstairs to his workshop and locked the door. Max was sitting on a couch in the living room, still a bit shaken. Trey looked around and sighed. Then he walked over to the couch and sat down next to Max.

"You ok?" he asked.

"All things considered? I guess," she replied.

"Well, I'm sorry that happened."

"It's ok. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was terrified, but that wasn't what really shocked me."

"Really? What did then?"

She swallowed.

"Wait, let me guess. Connor?" he asked.

"Mm-hm. What was with that look in his eyes? He looked like he was going to kill that man," she replied, nervous.

Trey closed his eyes and sighed.

"If I hadn't stopped him, he probably would have."

Max looked at him in shock.

"Max, Connor suffers from what he calls Dissociative Schizophrenia, a sort of combination of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia," Trey explained.

"What does that even mean?" she asked, almost shouting.

"It means he has alternate personalities, _and_ hears them in his head, even when they aren't in control. That look you saw was one of them taking over. I think seeing you with a gun to your head made him snap."

"So, what if either of us was threatened he would just snap and kill them? That's crazy!"

"No, I think it was because it was _you_ specifically."

"What makes you say that?"

Trey got up.

"That," he started, "is something you should ask him."

He walked over to his room.

Max just stared at the spot where Trey was, wondering what he meant by that. Then she got up and went over to the workshop door.

 **0**

Connor had been sitting in his workshop tinkering with the laser gun the old man left behind when a knock came from the door. He pressed a button on the keyboard next to him, activating the observation camera just outside the door. When he saw it was Max, he sighed, and pressed another button and opened the door. She walked in.

"Connor, I-" she asked.

"Could you hand me that screwdriver over there please?" he interrupted.

She looked to where he was pointing, grabbed the screwdriver and handed it to him.

"As Cisco Ramon once said, 'Rule one of mechanical engineering: don't waste good tech," he said.

"Who's Cisco Ramon?" she asked, distracted by the dramatic subject change.

"A character from the Flash TV series,"

"Ok, well that is … not at all what I need to talk to you about. I need to talk to you about what happened in the warehouse."

Connor stopped, put his tools down and turned to face her.

"Please don't make me talk about that," he begged.

"No way, we are going to talk about this. Ever since you two got here, I have had to deal with some really crazy things, but that look in your eyes that, apparently, _I_ triggered? That takes the cake, and I need an explanation," she replied, shouting.

Connor turned away again and closed his eyes, seemingly on the verge of tears. He held his head in his hands and sighed.

"Samantha Jackson," he said.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"She was my girlfriend on our earth until about two months before we came here."

"What happened, did she dump you or something?"

"No, no no no no no, nothing like that. We were in love, a perfect match."

"So then what happened?"

He closed his eyes even harder.

"One night, we were walking back to her car after a double date with Trey and his girlfriend, and…" he paused, obviously recalling a painful memory, "and a group of guys came up to us with guns, and told us to give them everything we had, or they'd shoot us."

"Doesn't seem like that would stop you two."

He laughed a hollow, empty laugh.

"You're right, it didn't. We went at them, but one of them managed to get a shot off. He missed me, but Samantha..."

He stared down at the floor,

"She was standing right behind me. The bullet pierced her heart, and she fell to the ground. That was the first time The Beast ever came out all the way," he continued.

"What happened next?" Max asked,

"What happened was I killed them. All of them."

Max was stunned.

"What?!"

"When the Beast emerged, he tore into him, breaking arms and legs and stabbing them with the broken pieces. I was covered in so much blood. The only thing that stopped him then was me hearing Samantha's voice. I called 911, but it was too late. She died in my arms."

Tears started falling down his cheeks.

"Oh," she said, putting her arm around him, "I'm so sorry. So that's what made you snap back there? Seeing me in a similar situation?"

"Not quite," he said.

He reached into his wallet, and pulled out a slip of photo paper.

"This is a picture I took of us on our one year anniversary."

He turned the picture so Max could see it, and she held her hand over her mouth in shock.

The girl in the photo had one arm wrapped around Connor's shoulder. The two of them sat on what appeared to be the top of a ferris wheel. But the truly shocking part was Samantha.

She was the spitting image of Max.

Max sat there stunned, unable to look away from the picture.

"Yeah, imagine how I felt, coming to an alternate earth and the first person I meet looks, sounds, acts, even _smells_ , exactly like my dead girlfriend. I nearly lost it right when you walked in the door."

Max stood there a while, just staring. Then she held up her arms and gave Connor a hug, pulling him close like someone would at a parent's funeral. This took Connor by surprise, but he found himself crying even more.

After a few minutes, he wiped his eyes.

"You're taking this remarkably well," he said, still evidence of tears on his face.

Max smiled.

"With you two, I have come to expect a large amount of crazy things. Now that doesn't mean that I'm not stunned by this but honestly, it seems to bother you even more than it does me, and helping you helps me."

Connor looked at her for a minute, then collected himself and stood up.

"Ok," he said with a sigh and a clap of his hands, "Why don't you go on upstairs, I'll go up soon."

"All right," she said gently.

She walked up the stairs and out of the basement, leaving Connor there. Once she was gone, Connor sighed to himself.

"Exactly the same."

 **0**

After the day's events, no one was feeling particularly hungry so they all decided to got to bed. Connor walked past the living room to see Trey putting away a few cards.

"What ya working on?" Connor asked.

"Just an experiment. Don't really expect it to go to anything." Trey answered.

"Huh. Let me know, I'm up for a test duel whenever."

"Sure thing."

Connor walked off, leaving Trey to his work. A few minutes later, Trey put the cards away and stepped outside.

 **0**

Connor went to his room on the second floor, and flopped down in his bed. He dropped his Six Samurai Deck around him, looking for his Kizan. He found it and picked him up, putting the rest of the cards away.

"Hey. Are you there?" he asked.

The card glowed softly and the ghostly figure of Kizan appeared next to his bed.

"You called?" Kizan asked.

"I guess you heard all of that. And saw what happened earlier."

"Indeed I did."

"Thoughts?"

"You fought well, if that's what you mean."

"No Kizan, that's not what I mean. What do you think I should do now? How do we fight an army made of liquid people? "

"Honestly, I have no idea. But you are a smart man. You'll figure something out," The black armored samurai said.

"Well, you're no help," Connor replied.

He put the card away, and closed his eyes.

 **0**

Max was in her room, lying on her bed.

"Soul?" she asked aloud.

"Here," a voice answered.

Max turned to the voice. The voice came from a short ghostly figure, only about five and a half feet tall. She was a very humanoid cat woman, with long, waist length red hair, and what appeared to be a simple tribal outfit.

"Soul, did you hear that conversation with Connor?" Max asked.

"Of course. It took me by surprise as well."

"How do I deal with that?"

"Couldn't tell you. I honestly wasn't expecting it either. My suggestion is to take it one day at a time and hope it gets easier to digest as time goes on."

Max turned over to try and sleep, but then a thought occurred to her.

"Wait, where were you when I got kidnapped?" she asked.

Soul looked dejected.

"I was still too worn out from our first manifestation to help. I'm sorry," she said, obviously sad.

"It's ok. You can go now," Max told her.

As Soul's ghostly form vanished, Max rolled over on her side, and after a while of thinking and tossing and turning, she fell asleep.

 **0**

Trey walked outside and leaned against a wall. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. It was the first card he had ever owned. He smiled at the copy of White-Horned Dragon that had rarely left his side for several years.

" _We have been together for a while, haven't we,"_ said a voice in Trey's head.

Trey looked up, surprised. He was shocked to see White-Horned Dragon laying on the ground in front of him.

"So you can talk then. I wasn't sure since you didn't say anything the first time you showed up."

" _I can, but it is difficult for me to try and talk to other humans. It is easier for me to talk to you, due to the amount of time we have been together."_

"Won't someone see you and become concerned about a giant dragon laying in front of the house?"

" _This isn't a physical appearance. Only you can see me like this, though your friends likely could if I let them. The same goes for Kizan and Soul, they aren't visible to just anyone. Though we_ can _be seen if we enter the physical world, like we did the other night. Doing so is exhausting, especially since even showing up like this is taxing for us. It isn't something we have ever done before."_

"Well, I should go to sleep. We've had kind of a long day. You should get some rest too."

Trey turned and headed inside. Just before he went through the door, he turned and smiled at the dragon.

"It's good to know you've been with me this whole time. Thank you." Trey said. He carefully closed the door behind him as the dragon faded away.

 **0**

The next morning, Connor went downstairs into the kitchen, before anyone else woke up. He wandered around a bit, walking in circles around the central island, thinking of what he could make. Eventually, he just gave up and decided they would go out for breakfast.

He sat down and got his laptop out in the living room. Until just this moment, it hadn't sunk in that he was richer than he could imagine. He opened the website for the Gold Mine TCG online store. He found all sorts of cards he wanted, and bought them, buying enough to finish all of his incomplete decks, and projects he never quite started.

Eventually, Trey came into the living room.

"Food," Trey said, in Connor's general direction.

"I'm not cooking, we're going out. I'm not in the mood to cook," Connor replied.

"Fine."

As Connor sat there waiting he looked for restaurants that served breakfast. He settled on one that was similar to a restaurant called Perkins that he had frequented in their own world, named I Don't Know. He was about to buy a car but then remembered he didn't have a license. Then he had a thought.

"Hey Trey?" he asked.

"Mmm," Trey grunted in response.

"Do you still have a valid driver's license? Even here?"

Trey took his wallet out of his back pocket, opened it and showed it to Connor. Sure enough, his driver's license seemed perfectly fit to the new world, and thus legal to use. He put his wallet away, and Connor turned back to the purchase and bought the car, leaving a special notice that he would pay 50% above asking price if they managed to deliver it in 30 minutes.

And so, they waited on Max. It was about half an hour of waiting before she finally made it to the living room. She walked in, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and looked at the two of them, fully alert and waiting on her.

"Of course you're awake. Why wouldn't you be," she said.

She sniffed the air.

"Wait, I thought you said you could cook?" she asked Connor.

"I can, I just wasn't feeling up to it," he replied, "I thought we all could go out for breakfast this morning."

She yawned.

"I'm ok with that, just let me change real quick."

She went back to her room. A full five minutes later, she re-emerged dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, her long hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Let's go. Where are we going?"

"I Don't Know" Connor said.

Max just looked at him. "Really?"

"No, the restaurant's name is I Don't Know."

"I guess that makes sense."

"I'll drive," Trey broke in, before walking towards the door without another word.

"With what car? Wait, don't tell me. You just bought one and made it get here super quick," she said.

Connor smiled.

"Good, you're learning."

They walked out to find a truck pulling away after dropping off a brand new 2017 model Dodge Charger. Trey was already in it, sitting behind the wheel. They got in, Max in the passenger seat, and Connor in the back. The drove on to the restaurant, went in, ordered and sat waiting for food. When it came, Connor decided it was time to talk.

"Max?" he asked.

She was looking over her plate, trying to decide what to eat first, the eggs or the bacon. When he called her, she looked halfway up.

"Hm?" she asked.

"Well, I thought I should let this out there. If you have any lingering questions for either of us, now is the time to ask. Something tells me we won't get a whole lot of free time in the near future."

She paused and considered this.

"I have a few," she said.

She started asking questions from "What are your last names, because you never actually told me?" to "Why won't Trey answer my questions?" and many more. Connor answered most of them because Trey refused to speak until his food was gone. After Trey finished his food, Max came to a question that actually made them both pause.

"So, just out of curiosity, how many decks do you guys even have?" she asked.

The two of them turned and looked at each other, kind of confused.

"Have we ever actually counted?" Connor asked.

"I don't think so," Trey replied.

"Well let's try, she did ask. There's the two that you use," Connor started.

"Then your 5. Not to mention the, like 20 or so project's you've got going at any given time."

"Plus there's that one you haven't showed us yet, and the other decks you've built."

"Yeah, so all in all, if we had to guess about 30 or so between the two of us," Trey concluded.

"Really? Honestly, I expected it to be higher," Max said quizzically.

"It probably is," Trey replied.

They sat there for a while, just talking about whatever came up. Soon, a young man with brown hair and brown eyes, dressed in a school uniform came up to their table.

"Hey! You're the guy that used that Five-God Dragon! I want to challenge to a duel you for it!" said the young man.

"Huh?" Trey said as he looked up. "Ok, what do I get out of it if I win?"

The young man smiled slyly.

"My mom works for Industrial Illusions. She got me a card from a new archetype that hasn't been released to the public yet. You win, I'll give it to you." the young man said.

"Well before he duels for it, can we see it?" Connor asked.

The young man took a card out of his deck box, and turned it toward them. It was called Dragon Knight Vulthuryol, and it's effect was very powerful. Trey just shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" Trey said as he reached down for his deck. Then he frowned. "Wait. Crap, I didn't grab my deck box before I left. Sorry, maybe later?"

"What? You're so scared to duel me that you're making up an excuse to get out of it?"

"Really? You're gonna be like that? Fine, _I'll_ duel for him," Connor broke in, then turning to Trey he asked, "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," Trey replied, "Wait, you grabbed your cards? Which deck?"

"My Flamvells."

"Okay, that works." Trey looked at the other man. "He'll duel you with my Five-Headed on the line versus your Dragon Knight. Fair enough? Oh, and what is your name anyway?"

"My name's Kenichi, and yeah, that should be fine." Kenichi said. "We should probably step outside to duel though."

"This should be interesting." Max said as they walked outside. "Yet another deck I haven't seen used before."

 **0**

The duelists went outside, to duel in the parking lot. Each one took their stance, with a small crowd forming around them.

"Duel!" they shouted together.

(Kenichi: 8000 :: Connor: 8000)

"You can go first," Connor said.

"Thanks. I Draw! I summon Marauding Captain!" he said.

The well-known blonde knight walked out onto the field wielding dual swords. He raised one of his swords into the sky with a shout. (1200 ATK)

"And I use his effect to summon Heroic Challenger - Swordshield!"

Another knight, this one wearing a full suit of green platemail and wielding twin shields that had sword blades coming from both the top and bottom walked onto the field. (2000 DEF)

"I will set two cards and end my turn."

"Draw! I Summon Flamvell Firedog in Attack mode!" Connor shouted.

In a burst of fire, a large dog seemingly made of burning magma burst, with stone spikes on its shoulders and incredibly pointy ears burst onto the field. (1900 ATK)

"Now I'll set 3 cards, and my Firedog will attack your Marauding Captain! Lava Fang!"

Three cards appeared behind the dog, and the it bared its fangs, revealing them to be burning red and orange. Then it ran forward and bit the knight with two swords. The knight cried out then melted into slag.

(Kenichi: 7300 :: Connor: 8000)

"Now Firedog's effect activates, allowing me to Special summon a Fire-Attribute Monster from my deck, so long as it has 200 defense or less, like my Neo Flamvell Sabre!"

He pulled his card from the deck and placed it on the field.

The warrior that next walked out was indeed a sight to behold. He had burning red hair, ornate green and blue leather armor with red-orange wrist guards, and a sword ablaze with bright orange flames. (1500 ATK)

"Now when he is on the field, and there are 4 or fewer cards in your graveyard, he gains 600 ATK points!" Connor continued.

The flames on Sabre's sword changed from orange to a fierce blue. (1500 ATK = 2100 ATK)

"Now, Sabre, attack his Heroic Challenger Swordshield!" he smiled, "Flame Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!"

Sabre smiled as well. Then he leapt into the air, enveloped himself in the same blue flames as on his sword, and fell down onto the defending monster, blasting it to pixels. If it had actually been a physical explosion, it likely would have knocked them both over. Instead, it just created a small gust of wind. The warrior then jumped back, into his original position.

"Seriously? You just had to rip-off Fairy Tail, didn't you?" Trey asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Connor replied, completely straight faced, "I end my turn."

"Ok, my draw!" Kenichi said.

He looked over his hand.

"I activate The Warrior Returning Alive," he said, throwing the card down, "This lets me move one Warrior-Type Monster from my Graveyard back to my hand, like my Marauding Captain! Then I'll Summon it, and the other Marauding Captain I just drew! Can somebody say 'Attack Lock' for me please?"

The two dual-wielding soldiers appeared on the field (1200 ATK x2)

The statement went over really well with the crowd that had slowly started to form around them.

"There are people here. When did people get here?" Trey asked.

Max looked at him like he was an idiot, one of the very few times an intelligent person had done so, then she remembered who was talking.

"Street duels always draw a crowd, without fail," she told Trey.

"Oooooooh," he replied.

Connor looked over the field.

"Ok, that it? You going to do anything else?" Connor asked.

"Uh," Kenichi replied, eyeing Connor's facedowns, "No, I think I'm good."

"Ok then, I draw!" he replied.

Connor look at his hand, disappointed. He set one card, and a facedown monster appeared. Then he waved his hand, signaling the end of his turn.

Kenichi drew a card.

"I summon Heroic Challenger Thousand Blades!" he shouted.

As he placed the card down, a knight in silver armor holding a glaive, with blades sprouting from every crack in his armor appeared. (1300 ATK)

"Now I activate his effect, discarding one 'Heroic' card, like my Double Lance, to summon another Heroic Challenger monster from my deck!"

As he pulled out his deck to find a good monster, Connor held his hand over the Trap card activator button for his left-most Trap. Once Kenichi found one, Connor was itching to press the button.

"I Special Summon Heroic Challenger Extra Sword!"

He placed the card down and another warrior appeared. This one was clad in in much less flashy armor that was green around the neck, shoulders, the sides of the hip guards, and the calves, but silver everywhere else. (1000 ATK)

Connor moved his hand away, as Kenichi continued his turn.

"Now, I overlay my two Heroic monsters!"

The two of them transformed into dark brown arrows of light, that shot up into the sky above the field, the joined into a red sphere of light that moved like a star in permanent flux.

"I Xyz Summon Heroic Champion - Gandiva!"

The star dissipated and from it an ornately armored mounted archer with an arrow nocked. (2100 ATK)

"And because I summoned him with Extra Sword as an Xyz material, he gains 1000 attack points!"

As he said this, a phantom image of Extra Sword appeared behind his Gandiva, and it glowed, with its muscles becoming more defined, and its bow growing more ornate. (2100 = 3100 ATK)

However as soon as it finished, a large hole opened beneath it, swallowing it. Kenichi, and the audience looked at the hole in surprise, the they saw that one of Connor's facedown cards had lifted.

"Bottomless Trap Hole," Connor said, completely deadpan.

"Of course," he said with a sigh, "I end my turn."

The blue fire around Neo Flamvell Sabre subsided, and his Attack score fell to it's base. (2100 = 1500 ATK)

"What happened?" Kenichi asked.

"When you have more than 4 cards in your graveyard, which you do because Gandiva's materials went there, his attack returns to normal. Anyway, I draw," Connor replied.

"Yes! First, I Flip summon my Neo Flamvell Garuda!"

His facedown monster flipped and was revealed to be a sort of weird cross between a dragon and a bird.

"Next, I normal summon Neo Flamvell Origin, and using it and Neo Flamvell Sabre, I can Synchro Summon!"

Again, the music for Synchro Summoning played

" _Born in the fiery core, rage empowered by white hot flames, strength of an erupting volcano! Clustering stars form a spark to light a roaring fire!"_

 **(2 + 4 = 6)**

" _Ignite… Flamvell Urquizas!"_

In a burst of brilliant flames, a man leapt out onto the field, surrounded in an aura of flames. (2100 ATK)

"Now I Activate the effect of the Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos in my hand, discarding it and my Flamvell Dragnov, I can destroy one of your Marauding Captains!"

As he sent the cards to the graveyard, the head of a dragon with scales like molten lava, came out over his head, and blasted the Marauding Captain on the right into pixels.

"Now, Flamvell Firedog, Attack the other Marauding Captain! Lava Fang!"

The Beast again bit into the soldier, destroying it.

(Kenichi: 6600 :: Connor: 8000)

"Now It's effect activates, allowing me to summon another Flamvell Monster from my Deck, like Flamvell Grunika!"

A purple winged bipedal dragon appeared in a burst of flame. (1700 ATK)

"Ok, but since I took battle damage from that, I can summon Thousand Blades back in Attack mode!"

The bladed knight jumped back onto the field. (1300 ATK)

"Fine. Grunika, attack! Fire Dragon: Roar!"

"Damnit Connor!" Trey screamed.

The dragon blasted fire from its mouth, incinerating the knight.

(Kenichi: 5400 :: Connor: 8000)

"Hey, why did I take so much damage?!" Kenichi yelled.

"When Grunika destroys a monster, you take damage equal to its level times 200. Urquizas, Attack directly! Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"

He surged forward, his fist enveloped in flames, and punched Kenichi in the gut, making him double over from the phantom pain.

(Kenichi: 3300 :: Connor: 8000)

"I end my turn," Connor said.

"I draw." Kenichi said. He looked at the card he drew, surprised, and then he smiled.

"That probably isn't good." Connor said.

"First, I will activate Dark Hole!" Kenichi said.

"I chain Backfire. My monsters are still gone, but they take something of yours with them when they go. 500 Life Points apiece," Connor replied.

(Kenichi: 1800 :: Connor: 8000)

"One might say his plan… backfired." Trey said.

Connor turned to him, and just stared, fury in his eyes. Trey just smiled at him.

"Next, I will use Monster Reborn to bring back the Extra Sword I discarded for Thousand Blade's effect."

A soldier in white and green plate armor appeared on the field holding twin longswords. (1000 ATK)

"Then I will summon Heroic Challenger - Double Lance. His own effect summons my second copy of Double Lance from my graveyard."

Two warriors in white and blue plate armor walked out onto the field. Each held two large spears. (1700 ATK)

"Let's turn this duel around. Time to summon a good friend of mine. I will overlay both of my Double Lances and my Extra Sword to summon 'Heroic Champion - Kusanagi'!" Kenichi said.

A tall soldier in red and green armor appeared on the field. He held a sword with a blade made from focused fire. (2500 3500 ATK)

"And his attack goes up by 1000 thanks to Extra Sword." Kenichi said. "Kusanagi, attack!"

Kusanagi ran forward and thrust his sword through Connor's chest.

(Kenichi:1800 :: Connor: 4500)

As Kusanagi retreated, Connor doubled over in pain, quietly screaming.

"Dude, are you alright? It shouldn't have hurt that much," Kenichi asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine in a second, just not that used to it," he replied, still hunched over a bit.

"What do you mean?" Kenichi replied.

"Well all of the other duels I've had up to now were over by this point."

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah, and it's only like his 3rd or 4th duel with an actual disk, so…" Trey interjected.

"Really? How come?"

"It's a long story. Anyway, it's still your turn. Anything else," Connor asked, having mostly recovered.

"Nah, that's it."

"Ok then, my draw!" Connor said.

He looked over his hand, disappointed.

"I set one monster and end my turn."

"My move! I draw!" Kenichi looked at the one card in his hand and smiled.

"Please tell me you didn't just draw Ambush Soldier." Connor said.

"No, I don't have that one, but I did draw something almost as good. I summon Heroic Challenger - Night Watchman!" Kenichi said.

A shorter soldier with a small blade, a purple cape, and a white and red mask walked onto the field holding a lantern. (1200 ATK)

"Now, Night Watchman, attack and destroy his defense position monster!"

Night Watchman rushed forward as a black armored dragon appeared where the face down card was. (Flamvell Guard; 2000 DEF) Watchmen smashed his lantern into the dragon's face, and Flamvell Guard shattered. Kenichi grimaced as the flames from Backfire shot out at him.

"What happened? Guard's defense was much higher than Watchman's attack!" Max asked.

"Night Watchman can instantly win any fight with a defense position monster" Trey said.

"Kusanagi! Attack him directly again!" Kenichi said with a smile.

Kusanagi ran forward and cut across Connor's chest with his flaming blade.

"AGH!" Connor screamed.

(Kenichi: 1300 :: Connor: 1000)

Several comments came from the audience. One rose above the others.

"Holy crap. That guy just went from a 6000 point lead to losing with only 1000 Life Points left. That's crazy!"

"Wait, how'd I lose Life Points?" Kenichi.

"You forgot about Backfire. The trap is continuous, and activates anytime a Fire monster gets destroyed by anything, not just card effects." Trey said, since Connor was again hunched over.

"He's right. Is that it?" Connor asked, groaning.

"Yeah. Your move, if you can."

"Great. I draw!"

Connor smiled.

"Go, Dark Hole!"

A small pinprick of darkness appeared in the center of the field. Everything around it slowly warped towards it as the suction caused by the infinitesimally small point increased to insane proportions until finally Night Watchman, and then Kusanagi were drawn into the raging vortex. The pull from the black hole summoned by the card slowly vanished until nothing remained on the field.

"Holy crap! That's not what it's supposed to look like!" said another member of the audience, while most of the rest of them were staring at the empty space in shock.

Connor did as well, but recovered much quicker than the rest of them as he had gotten used to seeing the strange visual effects of his and Trey's cards before.

"Ok then. Now that that is over, I activate the effect of the Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos in my Graveyard, allowing me to summon it by banishing two Fire monsters!" he shouted, noticeably less happy than he normally would have been.

The iconic red and black fire dragon appeared on the field. The heat radiated off of him as the spikes on his back heated up and became red hot. He let out an earth-shaking roar. (2800 ATK)

"Now Blaster, attack directly! FIRE DRAGON KING ... ROAR!"

Blaster inhaled, then opened his mouth and shot a huge stream of flame straight at Kenichi.

(Kenichi: 0 :: Connor: 1000)

It took a moment for everyone to clear out, but after a few moments, they walked away. Kenichi was just standing there with an annoyed look on his face.

So, with the duel over Kenichi walked over to them, taking a card out of his pocket.

"Here. I'm a man of my word," he said, handing the card to Trey.

"Thanks man," he said, "Can you wait here a second?"

Then he turned to Connor.

"Hey, what do you think would have happened if he had that other Heroic Card you had?"  
Connor looked at Trey and saw the look in his eyes.

"Trey, no. We are not giving him my Rhongomyniad! Are you crazy? He almost won as it is!"

"Oh come on. It isn't like you're ever gonna build a Heroic deck. He can actually use it. Besides, if it's just losing the card that bothers you, I'll give you mine." Trey replied.

"Oh. All right then," Connor answered him.

"Um, what are you guys arguing about?" Kenichi broke in.

"This," Connor said, taking out a card of his own and handing it to him.

"Ok, What is thi…" He stopped talking and just stared at the card.

Trey smiled. "Yeah, that was my first reaction, too. It's yours. Think of it as a trade."

"Are you sure? This card is insane!" Kenichi said.

"I'm not, but Trey decided you should have it, so yeah. It's yours." Connor said.

\ "There is one condition, though," Trey said with a smile.

"What?" Kenichi said, suddenly suspicious.

"You have to come back and duel us every so often. It'll be fun! We can test our deck strategies." Trey said, though he seemed to be having too much fun with this suggestion. "We can show you what our decks are really capable of."

"Um… okay? Yeah, I guess that works. I still want that dragon of yours anyways, so I'd be back regardless."

"Hey guys, I think we should probably go. That duel would have attracted some attention, and people will know who you are from that tournament now. Unless you want more challenges, we should probably head back home." Max said.

"You have a point," Connor replied. "Well, see you, Kenichi. Be nice to my card."

 **CHAPTER END**


	8. Chapter 7

_Hey Guys! Packlord here... Sorry about the huge delay between chapters. We didn't die, I promise we didn't die! Life got in the way, so as usual we are gonna do a double chapter release here. hopefully we can get back on a more stable schedule and release chapters on a more regular basis. Anyway, here is the next chapter!_

 **0**

 **Chapter 7: Hurry Up and Wait**

 **0**

After breakfast, the trio left as Max informed them they should. Trey drove them all back to Connor's house. Connor sat in the back seat with his iPod in his hand and his headphones in his ears. In rare moments, when the volume spiked in the song he was listening to, the other two people in the car could hear it.

Before long, they were home again and they walked inside. Trey went to his room to go put his new card in his deck, and Connor sat down with his laptop in the living room. As she walked in through the threshold, Max's pocket buzzed. She reached around a bit and took out her phone. It was her mother, calling from her home in Iowa.

She smiled and answered the phone.

"Max, honey?" her mom asked.

"Hi mom." Max replied

"Hi sweetie. I'm just checking in. How are you?"

"I'm good mom. How's Danny?"

"Your brother's ok. He complains a bit about college, but he's fine. So how are things half a world away?"

"Doing good. Made some new friends the other day. They're nice, if more than a little weird."

"That's good. I'm really happy for you. Well, I just wanted to check in. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

She ended the call and put her phone back in her pocket. She turned and went back to the living room to find the boys on the couch watching a show she didn't recognize on the TV.

"What are you guys watching?" she asked.

"Old TV show called Smallville. It's a Superman show," Connor told her.

"Never heard of it."

"Not surprised."

She sat down on the couch. Then she immediately stood up again.

"Wait. What are we doing?"

Confused, Trey and Connor looked at her.

"What do you mean?" Trey asked.

"Well we're involved in some sort of interstellar war, and all you're going to do is watch TV?"

"Well what do you suggest we do? It's not like we have any method of tracking them," Trey replied.

"Or a way of gathering information about them. Or, I don't know, _fighting_ them?" Connor continued, "So we wait. That's all we can do. We are on the defensive until we know more about our enemy."

"Oh. Okay, I guess that makes sense."

"So, for now we wait."

And wait they did. Three days passed. Connor's cards arrived and he spent his time working in the basement on either his tech or his deck, cooking for the group (he wasn't kidding when he said he was good, as Max discovered) sitting on the couch, or training in the dojo at the rear of the house.

Trey spent a lot of the time locked in his room. Connor saw him come out once to sign for a small package, but didn't get a chance to ask what was in it.

Max was really the only one who left the house. Connor gave her a card linked to his bank account so she could buy things, so she went shopping. Or played video games with Trey and Connor (she even managed to beat them at Super Smash Bros. a few times.)

On the fourth day Max came out of her room and into the kitchen. Connor had made waffles for breakfast. Trey had woken up because he smelled food (it was unusual because it was 7:00 A.M. and he didn't usually wake up until 2:00 P.M.) When they sat down at the table Connor had just finished cooking and was getting plates ready for serving.

Max sat down, a bored expression on her face. When Connor set a plate down in front of her, he saw it.

"Bored?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said with a sigh.

"Well then what do you want to do?"

"I just think we should be preparing better for this whole war thing."

"Then have a practice duel," Trey chimed in through bites of waffle.

They both looked at him.

"That's actually not a bad idea. After breakfast, we'll go outside and we'll duel," Connor said, still surprised that Trey could even speak in an hour ending in AM.

"I'll duel you, I guess. What deck are you gonna use?" Max

"Hmmm. I guess I can use my dragons this time." Connor said.

"Wait, you use dragons too?" Max asked.

"Yeah, but not the same kind as Trey does."

 **0**

Max and Connor stood in the backyard. They activated their duel disks, and prepared to duel, while Trey stood off to the side and watched.

"I'll let you take the first move," Max said with a smile.

"All right then," he replied, drawing a card, "I activate the field spell Dragon's Ravine!"

The backyard disappeared, replaced by a massive canyon with with orange rock walls. In the distance, the silhouette of flying dragons could be seen.

"Next I set 1 card and Summon Dragunity Pilum!"

A smallish green dragon covered in black armor. It had a long silver metal spike sticking out from its head. (1400 ATK)

"Now it's effect activates! When he is Normal Summoned I can Special Summon one Dragunity Winged-Beast monster from my hand like Dragunity Militum! This also means that Pilum equips himself to Militum!"

A female figure wearing a helmet with a full face mask and metallic looking wings coming from her back. She appeared to be wearing a chainmail vest. Militum jumped onto Pilum's back. (1700 ATK)

"Now I activate Militum's effect, which allows me to Special Summon a Dragunity in my Spell/Trap zone to the field! So come on back Pilum!"

Militum jumped off of Pilum. (1400 ATK)

"Now I activate the effect of my Field Spell, which lets me discard one card to send a Dragon from my deck to the Graveyard, like Dragunity Phalanx!"

He discarded one card and one of the Dragon silhouettes flew into view, and into his graveyard.

"Then, I activate the effect of a Monster in my hand, Dragunity Arma Mystletainn! By sending a Dragunity Monster I control to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon him!"

Pilum vanished, and a very humanoid dragon with dark skin and golden plate armor appeared on the field. It had two sets of wings. One set of scaled dragon wings on his back and a golden set of feathered wings coming from his waist. He held a dark and silver scimitar. (2100 ATK)

"Now his effect activates, allowing me to equip him with a Dragunity Monster from my Graveyard, like the Phalanx I just sent there."

Dragunity Mystletainn's armor changed, growing bulkier around the hands, and spread to cover its entire body, changing from gold to a bronze color.

"Now I use the effect of Dragunity Phalanx, which lets me summon him to the field"

A dark blue dragon covered from head to toe in thick bronze armor. (500 ATK)

"Now I use Phalanx and Militum to Synchro Summon!"

The two monsters flew into the air.

" _Raging thunder, take form to strike down all who oppose you!"_

 **(*2 + *4 = *6)**

" _Synchro Summon, Dragunity Knight Vajrayana!"_

An enormous four winged dark purple dragon covered in red armor appeared on the field. On its back road a knight that looked similar to Militum. (1900 ATK)

"Wait, wait, "'Raging Thunder'? Why thunder, there was nothing storm-like about that card," Max asked

"Buddhism. Look it up. Now his effect activates, allowing me to move a Dragon-Type Dragunity Monster from my Graveyard onto him as an Equip Spell, like Phalanx again."

Vajrayana's arms and legs became covered in the thick bronze armor.

"Now I activate Phalanx's effect again!" Connor said happily.

"Wait you can do that more than once per turn?!" she asked.

"Technically no, but it resets when he leaves the field. So let's do this again! I tune my Level 2 Phalanx with my Level 6 Vajrayana!"

Again the two Monsters flew into the air.

 _"Gathering stars will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon!"_

 **(*2 + *6 = *8)**

" _Take Flight,_ _ **Stardust Dragon!**_ "

The large white and silver dragon appeared on the field with a roar. (2500 ATK)

Max just stared at it with her mouth hanging open.

"I end my turn!"

"Wait, you have…" Max just stared. Then she closed her mouth. "Of course you have it. Why am I surprised? I draw!"

She looked over the cards in her hand.

"I summon Wildcat Lion, set three cards, and activate Wildcat Savannah." Max said.

The large lion appeared on the field with three cards behind it as the canyon shifted and

the portion on Max's side shifted into the flatlands that was home to the Wildcats. (21002400 ATK)

"Now, Wildcat Lion! Destroy his Mystletainn!"

"Trap activate! Negate Attack," Connor interrupted

As Wildcat Lion closed in, the trap card lifted, and it's claws were repelled by an invisible wall, pushing it back to its starting position.

"Well, darn. I end my turn." Max said.

Connor drew a card.

"I summon Dragunity Dux to the field in Attack Mode!"

A man wearing a falcon head and with large metallic bird wings coming out of his back appeared on the field. He held a stick with what looked like several pieces of white cloth coming out of the end. (1500 ATK)

"Now he has two effects. First, I can move one of the Dragon-Type Dragunity monsters in my Graveyard to him as an Equip Spell, like Dragunity Pilum!"

Dux leapt into the air and the small green dragon appeared and caught him. Then they descended back into Dux's Zone.

"Now his second effect. He gains 200 ATK for every 'Dragunity' card on the field!"

Max stood stoically as Dux glowed and it's attack score rose. (1500 = 2100 ATK)

"In response to you summoning Dux, I activate Howl of the Wild." Max broke in.

"Now we get back to Pilum. While he's equipped to a monster, that monster can attack directly! So as I move to my Battle Phase, I'll do just that!"

Dux flew at Max and swung his weapon at her. When he did, there was a slight pop as the ends on his weapon broke the sound barrier.

(Max: 6950 ;; Connor: 8000)

"You could have attacked with Dux after you took out my Lion and done more damage. Why didn't you?" Max asked.

"Simple. I don't trust your backrow. You wouldn't set any destruction based cards like Mirror Force with Stardust on the field, so-"

"No one needs that much of a description Connor." Trey broke in.

"Thanks. Anyway, now I attack Lion with Stardust! Cosmic Flare!"

Stardust Dragon opened its mouth and started charging a blast of silvery energy.

"I activate Horn of the Phantom Beast and Forbidden Chalice!" Max said.

Wildcat Lion roared as the Phantom Beast horns sprouted from his head and the chalice bearing maiden appeared beside him. (2400 3600 ATK)

Stardust shot its energy blast at Lion, who charged through it and pounced on the dragon, which shattered into pixels. Max smiled as she drew a card. Connor grimaced both he and Howl of the Wild glowed red.

(Max: 6950 ;; Connor: 6600)

"Damn. I move Mystletainn to defense mode and end my turn." Connor said.

The gold dragon crouched down and raised its sword in front of itself. (1500 DEF)

The maiden with the chalice vanished. (3600 3200 ATK)

"I draw!" Max said, smiling. "I Summon Wildcat Cheetah."

The quick cat ran onto the field. (12001500 ATK)

"But don't worry, he won't be staying for very long. I sacrifice him to summon Wildcat Smilodon Fatalis!"

The massive saber-toothed cat stalked out onto the field. (24002700 ATK)

"Now, Wildcat Smilodon Fatalis will attack your Mystletainn!"

The saber-tooth pounced on the golden dragon, biting into the dragon's neck with its elongated fangs.

Connor grunted as Howl of the Wild glowed again. The aura around Dux dimmed. (2100 1900 ATK)

"And now, Wildcat Lion attacks your Dux!"

The massive lion jumped on Dux, destroying it. Howl of the Wild glowed again, and Connor frowned as its red glow sapped his Life Points yet again. Max grinned and drew another card.

Neither Max nor Connor noticed Trey walk back inside the house.

(Max: 6950 ;; Connor: 2900)

"I end my turn" Max said.

Silently, Connor drew a card. He played it and Pot of Avarice appeared. He took his Graveyard and removed Pilum, Dux, Mystletainn, Vajrayana, and Militum. Then he shuffled his deck, and drew two cards.

He then set one card facedown in his Spell/Trap Zone and summoned a Monster in Attack Mode. A small robed man with two sets of feathered wings appeared on the field. He held red, feather shaped knives in each hand and had more in pockets on his waist. (500 ATK). Max looked at the card's name identifying it as Dragunity Tribus.

"Effect of Tribus."

He pulled one card from his deck and put it into his graveyard and waved his hand to signal the end of his turn.

Max drew a card, and placed it on her disk.

"I activate Poison Fangs. I'm sure you know what that card does. Now, Lion, attack Tribus!"

"Mirror Force," Connor replied.

The trap card lifted up and a blinding flash of light blasted away both Lion and Smilodon Fatalis.

Max sighed. "I end my turn."

"Draw," Connor said, and smiled as he saw what it was.

"I activate the effect of the monster in my hand. By sending one Dragunity on the field to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a familiar face!"

As he said this, Tribus vanished and Mystletainn reappeared. (2100 ATK)

"Now his effect activates, as I'm sure you remember, allowing me to equip it with a Dragunity from my Graveyard, so I'll choose the monster I just sent there with Tribus's effect! Dragunity Brandistock!"

A blue dragon with pale blue armor flew onto the field. Its armor had a spearhead coming off the back of the neckpiece, and a long straight edge coming out of the back. Brandistock vanished, and Mystletainn's armor grew blue-ish blades coming out of his golden armored arms.

"Now while Brandistock is equipped to a monster, that monster can attack twice in a turn! Take it Mystletainn!"

Mystletainn flew towards Max and swiped at her with its sword, and then punched her with his newly clawed arm.

(Max: 2750 ;; Connor: 2900)

"I end my turn!"

Max drew a card. "I activate One Day of Peace."

Both Connor and Max drew a card.

Max frowned. "I end my turn."

Connor drew again. He set one card and waved his hand.

Max drew again. She smiled. "I summon Wildcat Lion and equip him with Ancient Fangs of the Wildcats!"

The lion strode out on the field. His fangs grew longer and sharper. (2100 2700 ATK)

"I activate Book of Moon!" Connor said. Wildcat Lion vanished.

"I end my turn," Max said with an annoyed look on her face.

Connor drew a card. He looked at it and smirked.

"It's been fun Max, but this ends now. I remove from play my Mystletainn to Special Summon Dragunity Arma Leyvaten!"

A massive orange dragon with two sets of wings. It had a large sword that it held backhanded, and orange armor covered its body. (2600 ATK)

"Next I Normal Summon Dragunity Partisan!"

A small blue dragon flew onto the field. It wore a dull gold armor and had a very thick blade attached to its head. (1200 ATK)

"Now I Tune my Partisan with my Leyvaten!"

" _Dragon's stand alone and breathe power! For one of the mightiest of all Dragons stands with us and shall bring us victory! Stand as one and know true power!_ "

 **(*2 + *8 = *10)**

" _Synchro summon! Rise and lay waste!_ _ **Trident Dragion!**_ "

The enormous three headed red dragon appeared on the field. Each of its heads let out a roar as the canyon suddenly vanished. (3000 ATK)

"You may know that when Trident Dragion is summoned, I can destroy up to two of my cards and give him an extra attack for each one. I got rid of my Dragon Ravine."

Max just stared at the massive dragon on Connor's field.

"Trident, destroy her face down card. First Hell Blaze!"

Trident Dragion's first head shot out a blast of electrically boosted flame at the face-down card. Wildcat Lion appeared briefly before shattering into pixels.

"Now, Trident! Finish it! Final Hell Blaze!" Connor said with a grin.

The massive dragon's second head blasted its fire straight at Max, causing her to fall over backwards.

(Max: 0 ;; Connor: 2900)

As the smoke cleared and the monsters vanished Connor started to laugh.

"Wow, Max. You almost had me there! Well done!"

Max looked around.

"Thanks, but what happened to Trey?" she asked.

Connor looked around.

"Why does he have to be so sneaky?" Connor shook his head. "He'll be back at some point."

 **0**

As Trey walked down the sidewalk, he glanced back over his shoulder and saw a large three headed dragon.

"Come on, Connor! That's my card." Trey mumbled.

He walked for quite a while, before getting stopped by a young woman. She was relatively tall, with short, spiked black hair. She smiled at him.

"I see you have a duel disk. Care to duel? I've been meaning to have a nice fun duel for a while. You up for it?"

Trey shrugged and smiled.

"So you just walk up to people and duel? No introductions or anything? Really?"

"I like to seem mysterious." She held out her hand. "I'm Leah."

"I'm Trey. let's do this."

 **CHAPTER END**


	9. Chapter 8

_Hey its Packlord here again. It has recently come to my attention that when we post the chapters to the website, it creates a lot of grammatical errors. Things like spacing and punctuation are changing, and some things are being removed entirely. Well, I fixed most of those problems for this chapter and will likely be going back to old chapters and fixing them as well._

 **0000000000**

Chapter 8: Still Waiting

 **00000000000**

(Trey: 8000 ;; Leah: 8000)

"So, you said you haven't dueled for fun in a while. You a pro or something?" Trey asked.

Leah winked at him as she backed up and activated her duel disk.

"Tell you what, you win, I'll tell you." she replied. "Well, I challenged you, so do you wanna go first or second?"

Trey turned on his duel disk, and put in his deck.

"I'll go first." He drew six cards. He looked over his hand and set four of them.

"That should do it. I end my turn."

"You sure know how to keep a girl guessing." Leah said as she drew a sixth card.

"I'm gonna need you to stop there for a second." Trey said.

Leah frowned.

"I activate Artifact Sanctum. I summon Artifact Caduceus from my deck."

The orange and silver caduceus appeared on the field, and a glowing orange hologram appeared behind it and grabbed it. (2400 DEF)

"Then to the summon, I chain the activation of Artifact Ignition. I will destroy my face down Beagalltach, and with the second effect I set Artifact Moralltach. Then, Beagalltach summons itself. Also, because an Artifact was destroyed, I can summon Artifact Labrys from my hand."

The red and silver sword appeared, floating above the field. A red hologram showed up behind it and grabbed the hilt. (2100 DEF)

Alongside it, a purple and silver battleaxe floated out as well. A purple hologram materialized behind it. (2300 ATK)

Then, Beagalltach turned and slashed through the set Moralltach.

"Now I activate the effect of Artifact Chakram from my hand. I will return that Moralltach to my hand to Summon Chakram in its place."

Two floating brown rings with four cross shaped blades on each appeared, before a brown hologram grabbed them both. (2000 DEF)

"Now, because I just summoned three Artifacts during your turn with Caduceus on the field, I get to draw three cards. And I'm not done there." Trey said as he drew three cards. "I activate Artifacts Unleashed, which allows to me pick two artifacts on the field, like Labrys and Chakram, and overlay them to summon Artifact Durendal."

The two weapons fused together to form a large silver blade with red and blue accents. A female looking hologram appeared on the field, similarly colored red and blue. (2400 ATK)

"Now, because Durendal is an Artifact, I can draw another card, but other than that I believe I am finished." Trey said with a smile.

Leah just looked at him, then she smiled.

"That was definitely quite the turn, especially since it took place entirely in my Draw Phase. This may be more fun than I was expecting."

"Not the usual response I get for this deck, I'll admit." Trey said.

"Well, now that my turn is mine again, I shall start by summoning Fire Fist - Leopard to the field!"

A man wearing black leather armor burst onto the field in a flash of blue flame. A large cat made of blue fire stalked behind him. (0 ATK)

Trey looked at the the blazing cat.

"That… is a cheetah, not a leopard." he said.

Leah looked at him, then at the cat.

"You sure? How would you know?"

"A friend of mine runs Wildcats. I'm getting familiar with what the big cats look like. That is definitely a cheetah. Anyway, sorry. Continue, I'd hate to interrupt your turn further."

"I'll tribute Leopard in order to set a spell card from my deck. And now I'll activate it. Fire Formation - Tensu. This allows me to make two normal summons in each turn. So I will use my second summon to bring out Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Spirit."

A humanoid blue flame wearing light blue armor appeared on the field. (500 ATK)

"Spirit's effect allows me to resurrect Leopard from my graveyard. Now, I can use the them to bring out someone a little better.

"Leader of the brotherhood of flames, surge forward and cleanse the world!"

(3* + 3* = 6*)

"Synchro Summon, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince!"

A man in silvered armor rode onto the field atop a stallion made of blue flame. (2200 ATK 2300 ATK)

"Now, using his effect I can bring out a friend of his from my deck. I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Rooster."

A younger looking man with 2 spears in his hands. A rooster made of a light blue flame was behind him. (1500 ATK - 1600 ATK)

"Now using Rooster's effect, I can pull a Fire Fist monster from my deck. Like this one."

She held up a card with a smile.

` "Now I can activate Fire Formation - Tenki. And I can use its effect to search yet another monster from my deck, and I will also set two cards to keep you guessing."

She pulled another card from her deck and set two on the field.

"Now, Horse Prince, attack his Beagalltach!"

The flaming horse charged forward, its rider striking down at the red and silver sword. The blade shattered, the red hologram fading out.

"And with that I'll end my turn." She said with a big smile on her face.

Trey drew a card.

"Careful. You wouldn't want to end your turn with all seven of those cards in your hand." Leah said.

Trey looked at her and set four cards in his Spell/Trap card zone.

"For some reason I don't think that's gonna be a problem." Trey said. "I activate Sanctuary in the Sky."

The field around them changed so that they were standing in front of a temple on an island floating high in the sky.

"Well, I kinda feel out of place now." Leah said looking around.

"What? Don't think you should be standing in Heaven? I know I probably shouldn't." Trey asked smiling.

"Wouldn't you like to know..."

"Now, I think I will end my turn" Trey said.

"I'll start my turn by activating Fire Formation - Gyokkou. I target ... the second face down card from the left! You can't activate it to chain with this effect and you can't activate it while Gyokkou stays on the field. Also, all my monsters gain an additional 100 attack. Next, I will summon both Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Dragon and Bear to the field!"

A heavily muscled man in black and gold armor walked onto the field. He held a sheathed katana and was followed by a blazing bear made of crimson fire. Beside him was a lean man in dark green armor with molten gold inlays. He held a long halberd with a molten edge. A small orb of flame floated behind him. From this orb sprang countless dragon heads that weaved around his frame. (B. 1600 ATK - 1900 ATK; D. 1800 ATK - 2100 ATK)

"Now I can activate Bear's effect. By destroying my Fire Formation - Tensu I can destroy one of your monsters, like your Durendal."

"I chain with Durendal's effect. I change Bear's effect to destroy one of my face down cards." Trey said with a grin.

"I activate Breakthrough Skill. Durendal loses his effect for the turn." Leah said, without smiling.

Trey frowned. "I see you're all serious now."

Bear ran forward and slashed through Durendal as he drew his blade. When he sheathed it, Durendal shattered.

"Now I activate Fire Formation - Tensen and target Rooster. All my Fire Fists gain 300 attack, and Rooster gains an extra 700 for the turn. And because I activated a Fire Formation card, Dragon lets me set another one from my deck, like another copy of Tensu. Which I'll activate."

(Horse Prince: 2200 ATK - 2800 ATK; Rooster: 1500 ATK - 2800 ATK; Dragon: 1800 ATK - 2400 ATK; Bear: 1600 ATK - 2200 ATK)

"Rooster! Attack his Artifact!"

Rooster ran forward, thrusting his twin spears into Caduceus. Caduceus shattered.

"Everyone else! Attack him directly!"

The other Fire Fists on her field rushed at Trey, slashing their weapons through him. He was knocked backwards onto the ground.

(Trey: 600 ; Leah: 8000)

Trey got up off of the ground.

"Oww. I definitely felt that."

"Not quite enough. Anyway, since Bear dealt damage to you this turn I can set another Fire Formation card from my deck. And I'll activate it. Fire Formation Tenki. I get to pull another Spirit from my deck and all my monsters gain another hundred attack points! I'll end my turn with that."

Trey drew a card.

"I'll set one more card and activate Cards from the Sky and banish my Honest. I can draw two more cards, but I can't attack or special summon or attack this turn, but then that isn't really an issue."

Trey drew two cards and looked at them.

"Now I can summon my Cardcar D, and tribute it for two more cards." Trey said as the infamous flat car raced on to the field, and then drove off as Trey drew two more cards.

"Wait… You seriously have a copy of Cardcar D? How do you have it?"

"Simple answer? Money. I don't generally spend large amounts of money on cards, but I recently came into some and decided it was worth it. Anyway, since I used Cardcar D, my turn is over. Make your move."

"Huh. I hope those draws were helpful, because you didn't summon anything to stop my attacks." Leah said as she drew a card. "It was a good duel, but it's over now. Horse Prince! Finish him off."

"Not so fast. I activate my trap card. Malevolent Catastrophe!"

Horse Prince stopped in his tracks as a small vortex spun into existence in the center of the field. It quickly grew in size and power until a huge tornado raged through the floating temple. The burning familiars behind the Fire Fists were drawn into the tornado as it caught fire and became a blazing cyclone that destroyed both players' back row.

 **0000000000**

Back at the house, Max looked out the living room window and saw the very same flaming pillar.

"What the heck?! What is that?!" She asked… or shouted.

Connor walked over next to her and looked at it. Then he hung his head.

"Somehow, I just know that Trey is involved."

 **0000000000**

As the tornado died down, both Trey and Leah stood there in shock.

"That was, a lot more realistic than I remember that card being." Leah said.

"Yeah. It's the second time recently I've seen a card go a little past the normal animation. Anyway, since the Artifacts in my backrow were destroyed, I can summon them. I summon Artifacts Caduceus, Scythe, Aegis, Moralltach, and since an Artifact was destroyed, Labrys from my hand. In that order."

Caduceus appeared on the field. (2400 DEF) Then, a large scythe appeared on the field. It had a black blade highlighted with purple lines. A dark grey hologram appeared and grabbed it, and then sat down. (2200 ATK) An enormous golden shield appeared on the field as well. The image of a head with several snakes coming from it seemed to be hidden behind its central emblem. A female hologram only as tall as the shield appeared behind the shield and grabbed it. (2500 DEF) A large silvered blade with light blue lines running down the blade appeared on the field. A light blue hologram appeared and grabbed the hilt. (2100 ATK) Labrys appeared on the field afterwards. (2300 ATK)

"Also, since all of your boosters are gone, your monsters get weaker again, and since I summoned Moralltach your Horse Prince gets destroyed. Oh, and I get to draw four cards."

Moralltach slashed through Horse Prince, and it shattered into pixels.

(Rooster: 2200 ATK - 1500 ATK; Dragon: 2500 ATK - 1800 ATK; Bear: 2300 ATK - 1600 ATK)

Trey looked up at Leah as he drew four cards and added them to his hand.

"It is still your turn, you know." He said without smiling.

Leah looked over the field and the card in her hand. She moved all of her monsters to defense position.

"I'm gonna end my turn here." She said.

Trey drew a card and smiled.

"First things first. It is time to summon a couple of monsters."

"What, during your turn? Amazing." Leah said with a smirk.

Trey smiled back at her.

"Didn't you know? I'm running Artifacts. It's ALWAYS my turn. I overlay Moralltach, Scythe, and Labrys to summon Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry!"

A huge machine with an extended front with wheels covered in large buckets stormed onto the field. (3200 ATK)

"That… is a very, very big machine." Leah said.

"Yep, and I'm not done yet. I activate Celestial Transformation to summon Athena from my hand. She is only at half strength, but it's her effect I'm after."

A woman walked out of the temple. She wore a white armored dress with a silver Grecian helmet on. She had long silver hair that seemed to float out behind her. In her left hand she held a mirrored shield, in her right a silvered spear. (2600 1300 ATK)

"And what effect would that be? And why did she step out of the temple?"

"Don't you know? Athena is the one of the Greek gods. Where else would she come from? Anyway, next I summon Honest from my hand."

An angel flew down to the field, a light shining from his chest obscuring much of his form. When he landed, Athena shot a bolt of pure white energy from here spear at Leah.

"HEY! What was that?"

"Whenever I summon a Fairy to the field, Athena will burn you for 600 points. Anyway, now I activate Athena's other effect. I can send one Fairy I control, like Honest, to the graveyard to summon another Fairy, like Durendal, from it. And since Durendal is a Fairy, you take another 600 points from Athena."

Athena raised her spear and Honest disappeared in a flash of white light. When the light cleared, Durendal was where Honest had been. Another bolt of light shot at Leah from Athena's spear.

"I'm not quite done. I have two more summons to make. For the first, I overlay Caduceus and Aegis to summon Tiras, Keeper of Genesis. And in case you were wondering, he is a Fairy too."

The holy warrior flew out of the temple and landed next to Athena. (2600 ATK) Athena shot another blast of light at Leah.

"I have one more summon to make. This one is a new one too. Never summoned him before. I overlay my Durendal to summon Artifact Gungnir From my extra deck!"

A large golden spear flew from above and slammed into the ground where Durendal had been. A large golden hologram that resembled an elderly man with an eyepatch grabbed it and pulled it from the ground. (3000 ATK) Athena lifted her spear yet again and pointed it at Leah.

"Well, it is an Artifact. I should've expected this." she grumbled. She grunted when the bolt hit her.

(Trey: 600 ; Leah: 5600)

"Now, I activate Digvorzhak's ability. I detach one of his materials to mill three cards from your deck, and then I can destroy one of your cards for each monster you mill."

Leah pulled three cards from the top of her deck. They were Fire Fist - Raven, Fire Fist - Hawk, and a Fire Formation - Tensen.

Trey smiled as Digvorzhak started up and crushed Dragon and Bear

"And now, I can detach one material from Gungnir to destroy your Rooster!"

The hologram holding Gungnir threw it. It flashed forward like a lightning bolt and pierced through Rooster like it wasn't there. Then it shot back to the hologram's hand.

"Now, Digvorzhak, Gungnir! Attack her and end this duel!"

The heavy machine and holy spear both crashed into her.

(Trey: 600 ; Leah: 0 )

"Well, that was fun," Leah said with a smile.

"Agreed. It has been a while since I've had a duel that close. Now, about my question. You a pro or something?"

"You're actually still curious? I'm surprised." Leah said.

"Not as curious as I was, more just want to collect on the bet. But yeah, a little. If pros are as good as you I might have to get into pro dueling. It could be fun." Trey said.

"Well, I guess I'll tell you." She pulled a card out of her pocket.

"I'm Leah, a pro duelist. Nice to meet you. If you are serious about wanting to try out the pro circuit, here." She handed Trey the card.

"What is this?" Trey asked.

"Give this number a call. They'll tell you where to go. You can meet my team, maybe get a spot on it if you want. It depends on what they think of you." Leah said.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me anything about this team? Like who's on it?" Trey asked.

Leah just smiled at him and then walked away.

Trey sighed.

"Didn't think so."

 **0000000000**

Trey walked into the house and found Connor and Max sitting in the living room. Both of them turned to look at him.

"And where have you been?" Connor asked.

"Just went for a walk, nothing eventful." Trey answered.

"Really? Let me pose a hypothetical."

"Hm?"

"If we were to have seen a gigantic pillar of flame shoot into the sky a few minutes ago, would you have had anything to do it?"

Trey gave him a strange look.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He walked away, towards his room. After a few moments they heard his door close.

When he got to his room, he pulled out the card Leah had given him. After a moment he pulled out his phone and typed in the number written on it.

 **0000000000**

Connor went down to his workshop to work on his tech.

The room wasn't very impressive. Right across from the door was the workbench which was really just a table next to an outlet, with a lot of computers. It extended to the wall left of the door, going halfway across it in an "L." His toolboxes were taking up the rest of the wall. The room extended deeper into the house to the right of the door by a good 50 ft, but most of it was filled with scrap metal and spare parts. He walked straight in, not even bothering to turn on the lights.

The dark didn't bother him, in fact he preferred it. Not unreasonably since he had spent the last year indoors, barely speaking, but he was trying.

He sat down in his chair and was about to get to work, but he stopped. He took out his wallet and removed the picture of him and Samantha. He didn't think of anything when he saw it but strangely he didn't feel a lot of the usual pain the picture carried either. He smiled and put the picture down, face down under the monitor support for the computer he was sitting closest to. Then he got up, and walked out of the room, heading towards the dojo in the rear of the house.

When he got there, he pulled out his Six Samurai Deck. He leafed through it to find Kizan's card, and when he did, he took the card and placed on the floor in front of him.

"Kizan," he said aloud, trying to summon the Spirit.

A few moments later the ghostly figure of the black-clad samurai faded into existence.

"Yes?" the spirit asked.

"I need your help."

"Name it, and I shall try my utmost."

"All right, I need you to train me."

"Train you? In what?"

"To tame the others inside my head. Something tells me we are going to need every advantage we can get, and The Beast is a lot stronger than me, and the Director is … well I'm sure that prick could come in handy."

"Very well, I shall assist as promised. When do we start?"

"Tomorrow, I have something I need to do."

Max looked through the cards from the box that Connor had ordered. She glanced up when Trey walked in.

"Have you seen some of the cards Connor ordered? I mean, I know you guys made a lot of money off of that Chimeratech, but at this rate you'll be out of money in no time."

"Well, I mean we could always sell more cards. It isn't like we don't have two more copies of Chimeratech alone to sell, along with others. Besides, I may have stumbled across something. Have you heard of a pro duelist named Leah?" Trey asked.

"You mean the Fire Princess? Yeah, I've heard of her. I'm more surprised that you have."

"Well, it's less I heard of her, more I dueled her."

"...," Max stared at Trey, "What?"

"What happened to not being surprised anymore?"

Max's stare turned into a glare, silently demanding further explanation.

"Like I said, I took a walk. I may or may not have dueled someone who seems to be a well known pro duelist. With a nickname, apparently."

"You also said that you had an uneventful walk. I'd hardly call dueling a pro uneventful. Unless you won without taking much damage. Wait, you didn't did you?"

"No, I actually almost lost. It was the first time in a long time I've had a challenge dueling anyone but Connor."

Max gave him a dirty look. He smiled back.

He walked over to the coffee table in front of the couch where Max was sitting, and picked up the TV remote, turning it on to watch a new episode of Arrow. What he got was something entirely different.

"CONNOR!" he screamed.

Connor bolted into the room (surprisingly fast, considering his size) in time to see that a Special Breaking News Report was airing.

"If you are just joining us we are bring you this footage live from the Kaibadome," said the male news anchor, "Where two people have taken over the stadium. We now take you back to our reporter on the ground, Lisa Lavender. Lisa, what can you tell us?"

"Well Will, not much. The two men have locked all exits from the arena and are standing on the central platform, and they claim to have rigged the entire arena with explosives. They even demonstrated it when they blew up the observation tower, killing everyone inside, as you can see here,"

The on screen scene changed to show the devastation. What was left of the tower was mere rubble, strewn about the Turbo Duel track. It then changed again to show the two who had taken it over. When he saw them, Trey muted the broadcast.

They both had seemingly inhuman features. One had dark red hair and eyes. His hair was long, almost down to his waist, and spiked in such a way that it seemed more like a solid shape than normal hair. His face was angular, he had deep set eyes that almost seemed to be rectangular, and his chin, nose, and ears all seemed to be pointed. The other had light yellow-green hair and eyes. His hair was short, barely down to his ears, but was also spiked in a way that made it seem like a single consistent shape rather than actual hair. His face, however, was softer. It was rounded, to an extreme degree. Everything about him seemed rounded somehow.

"Connor, do you see that?" Trey asked.

"What, that they are most definitely not human?" Max interjected.

"Yeah, I do, "Connor replied, ignoring her, "Un-mute it, I think they're about to start talking."

Trey unmuted the broadcast.

"PEOPLE OF NEO DOMINO CITY!" the red one shouted.

 **0000000000**

CHAPTER END

Fan-made cards used in this chapter:

**Artifact Gungnir: Rank 6 - Xyz - LIGHT - Fairy - 3000 ATK/2100 DEF - 3 level 6 LIGHT attribute monsters - You may also Xyz Summon this card by using three level 5 LIGHT attribute Fairy type monsters, provided they have "Artifact" in their names, or by using an "Artifact" Xyz monster you control as the Xyz material. (Xyz materials attached to that monster also become Xyz materials on this card.) Cannot be used as an Xyz material for an Xyz summon. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you may detach one Xyz material from this card to destroy one card on the field. If this card has an "Artifact" monster as an Xyz material when it is sent from the field to the graveyard, you may banish the "Artifact" monster that was attached to it and Special Summon this card to your side of the field, but change its original ATK to 2500 and when it would be sent to the graveyard, remove it from play for the rest of the duel. This effect of "Artifact Gungnir" may only be used once per duel.


	10. Chapter 9

0

Chapter 9: No More Waiting

0

 _Hey guys pop82 here, with a little foreword. In this chapter Connor will use his Six Samurai deck for the second time. As some of you know, the deck took a major hit when Gateway of the Six was banned. Now, it is not banned in the format we are using, but it does have an errata change that I'm going to mention just on the off chance a Konami Exec reads this. For this fic, you CANNOT_ _use Bushido Counters on other cards to activate any of Gateway's effects. Anyway, enjoy._

0

"PEOPLE OF NEO DOMINO CITY!" the red one shouted.

The news camera focused on him.

"Now that we have your attention, We are here for one purpose. As soon as that purpose is complete, we'll let you all go! Great huh?" he said smiling.

Most of the crowd was terrified, so much that they didn't even budge.

"What is that purpose, you may ask? Well this is a duel arena, what do you think it is we want? How about you? What do you think?" he asked, pointing to a little girl clinging to her dad.

Instead of answering, she cried and clung closer.

"Come on, it's an easy answer! A duel!"

He turned away from her, and began to rifle through his pocket, pulled out two photographs, and held them up. The camera zoomed in on them. They were Connor and Trey's high school yearbook photos.

"See these two people? Well you probably don't know who they are, but we do, and we know that they're watching. This message is for both of you. Get here in the next two hours and duel us or we will blow up the arena and everyone in it. See you soon!"

Max yanked the remote out of Trey's hand and turned off the TV.

"Hey!" Trey said. "Connor, did you see those pictures?"

"Of course I did. Now let's get our stuff and go," he said grimly.

"Wait, you guys are going down there?" she asked.

"Of course we are. Are you coming or not? I won't blame you if you don't want to come," Connor replied.

She looked at them and stared, kind of annoyed.

"You bet I'm going," she said.

"Good, go start the car, you're driving.

0

A few minutes later Connor and Trey were riding in the back seat, discussing their strategy. Trey would use his Dragons and Connor his Six Sams. Connor had even brought his gauntlets with him. Before they arrived at the arena, they were stopped at the Sector Security blockade 2 blocks away. One of the officers walked over to them.

"Turn around, we have a hostage situation up ahead, no one's allowed through."

Connor and Trey got out of the car.

"Let us through. It's us they want," Connor said.

"Sure it is, but you still can't pass, so get back in the car and turn around," the officer said, his hand on his weapon.

Connor pressed a button on his gauntlets and raised his left hand. A Solidvision sword

Appeared in his hand and he leveled it at the officer.

"Let us pass. I'll only say it once more."

"Is that a threat?"

Connor said nothing. Another officer came up to him and whispered into his ear. The officer with a sword pointed at him relaxed.

"Apparently you are exactly who you say you are, and I am supposed to let you through. Go on, and good luck."

They both got back in the car, and the barricade let them past. When the group reached the arena they found the doors bolted and mag-locked shut. Before they even got to the door after getting out Trey had released the mag-lock, and with his gauntlets Connor busted down the doors, breaking the manual bolt lock.

Max would later note that under normal circumstances, no one would be stupid enough to willingly enter a building rigged with explosives, but those two didn't seem to mind at all. She would also note that despite how incredibly terrified she should have been, she was hardly even scared.

They walked down the straight hallway and reached another door locked in the same way as the first. Connor didn't even wait for Trey to unlock the door before he broke it down. As they walked into the arena all of the eyes fixed on them, and the red one smirked. They climbed the stairs up to the center platform, and stood across from the "terrorists".

"Well, so nice of you to join us," The red one said.

Trey spoke up first.

"Let these people go. Now."

"Fine. I was planning on it anyway, It's better for us if we do this privately," red responded.

He turned to face the crowd after taking a second to fiddle with what looked like a cell phone.

"HEY!" he screamed, "I've unlocked the doors, everybody out."

The people took a moment to process this declaration. Then all hell broke loose as they scrambled for the exits. After about 30 minutes the only people in the arena were the five of them.

Connor and Trey readied their duel disks, standing at the opposite end of the arena from them.

"What no Trash Talk? Aww…." the red one said.

Connor spoke in a complete low monotone, "You came here, threatened countless people's lives, and all to play a game. None of us are in a trash talking mood. Now, face us and shut up."

"Well, if you wanna be all mean about it, then fine, We the brothers Ryalla and Pergerine shall end your lives, stopping any chance of your planet's victory in the upcoming battle," the red one said, "You should know, if you lose, we will take your lives, as is our custom, but if you win, we will give you a reward, something to aid you in the next battle."

Trey filed that bit about the "upcoming battle" away for later. With that, the duel began.

(T&C: 16000 ; R&P: 16000)

"Me first," Ryalla said, " I'll start by activating Necrovalley."

The stadium was replaced by a large canyon. The four of them stood in the bottom, with huge rock faces surrounding them. The sun was seen sitting just above the horizon.

"I'll then set two cards and end my turn. Let's see if you can deal with this." Ryalla said as two face down cards appeared in front of him.

Trey drew a card.

"I'll go next. I will start by activating my own field spell. I activate Chaos Zone!"

The area directly around Trey began to shimmer. A fissure ripped open behind him, showing the familiar blue gridded dimension behind him.

"I summon Eclipse Wyvern, and set two cards and end my turn."

The silver, black and red wyvern flew out onto the field. (1600 ATK)

Two set cards appeared behind it, and the green one drew a card.

"I'll start by setting two cards, one monster, one not. Then I activate my field spell, Domain of the True Monarchs."

A large throne appeared behind him, with a huge shadowy figure sitting in it. Several small figures knelt in front of it

"That will be all for me." Pergerine said.

"Then I'll go." Connor said as he drew a card. "I'll start by activating my own field spell, Temple of the Six."

A mist rolled across the canyon, and when it cleared a large temple could be seen in the distance behind Connor. In front of it a glowing gate barred access.

"Now, since my opponent controls a monster and I don't, I can special summon Elder of the Six Samurai."

An elderly looking man with his face covered appeared, sitting in a four legged mechanical box. (400 ATK)

"Next, I summon Kagemusha of the Six Samurai."

A samurai appeared on the field next to the elder. He wore a green cloth outfit, with armor pieces made of a seemingly futuristic tan colored material with glowing striped running down it. He held a sheathed katana in his hand. (400 ATK)

"Since I control two different Six Samurai monsters, I can special summon Great Shogun Shien from my hand."

A tall man wearing crimson shogun armor walked onto the field. He had a long black cape, and held a katana in one hand. (2500 ATK)

"The benefit of him, is that while he is on the field, you can only activate one spell or trap card per turn. Now, I will set two cards, and then I will tune together my Elder of the Six Samurai and my Kagemusha.

"The Code of the Samurai reborn in the body of a powerful warrior! Spirits of his comrades endowing strength to his mighty blade! Clustering stars bring tradition to the modern era…"

"Synchro Summon… Legendary Six Samurai Shi En!"

A tall man, even taller than Shogun Shien stepped onto the field. He wore ornate red and

gold armor. He had two black wing shapes coming off of his back. In his hand, he held a long katana with a serrated blade. (2500 ATK)

"By the way, since Temple has three counters on it now, all your monsters lose 300

Attack. I end my turn."

Ryalla drew a card.

"I shall start by flipping my Gravekeeper's Spy face up. Its effect allows me to summon a weak gravekeeper from my deck, not that it'll stay weak for very long. I bring out out Gravekeeper's Assailant."

An unassuming man with black hair wearing a black robe appeared on the field. (12001700 ATK) Beside him, a man in a full black cloak with his face covered walked out of the shadows. In one of his hands he held a wicked curved knife. (1500 1700 ATK)

"Now, I can sacrifice my Spy to make way for someone a bit stronger. I Tribute Summon Gravekeeper's Visionary!"

A man holding a golden rapier, wearing a jackal themed helmet, and sitting in an ornate throne appeared on the field. (2000 2400 ATK)

"I'll set one more card, then move into my battle phase. My Visionary attacks your Eclipse Wyvern!"

"I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. It'll negate your attack and then set itself again."

"I can't leave that on the field. I activate Imperial Tombs of Necrovalley, and negate your Trap!"

The man stood up and walked towards Eclipse Wyvern. A scarecrow made of scrap metal appeared in front of him before shattering into pixels. He thrust suddenly, and the dragon screeched before shattering into pixels. A small light flew from its remains, and a white vortex appeared inside of the Chaos Zone.

"Well, now I can use Eclipse Wyvern's effect, at least. I can banish one high level Light or Dark attribute monster from my deck, like my Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Also, since a monster was banished, Chaos Zone gains a counter."

"That's fine. Now, my Assailant attacks your friend's Shien, and his effect forces Shien into defense mode, so it won't be strong enough to hold him off."

The cloaked figure vanished into the shadows. Shien crouched defensively, before the wicked dagger appeared in his chest, Assailant standing behind him. Assailant vanished and reappeared on Ryalla's side of the field.

"And with that, I think I will end my turn," Ryalla said with a smile.

(R&P: 16000 ;; T&C: 15200)

While Connor didn't show it, the fact that he lost some of his negate power right off the bat did kind of upset him. But he knew better than to let his opponent's see him so much as quiver.

Trey drew a card, and smiled.

"I summon Axe Dragonute in attack mode, and I'll have him attack your Assailant."

A humanoid dragon landed on the field with large black wings holding a massive battleaxe. (2000 ATK)

"I'll have to stop you there. I activate my trap card, Mirror Force. Your Dragonute is dead."

"I activate my own trap. Dragon's Rebirth. I'll banish Dragonute to summon Prime Material Dragon from my hand."

A mirror appeared in front of Axe Dragonute. It caught the axe mid-swing and began to glow. A beam of light flew forward towards it. Then, suddenly, the humanoid dragon began to glow, then was engulfed in a sphere of light. A ray of light shot from the top of it and caused the air above it to ignite in a fireball. Out of the fireball flew a golden dragon that seemed best described as made from the living wood of a golden tree. Warmth and light radiated from it, as a new vortex opened up in the Chaos Zone. (2400 ATK)

"Pretty dragon. To bad it's still gonna be destroyed by mirror force." Ryalla said as the blast of light from mirror force shot forward, straight towards the new dragon.

"Not quite. By discarding a card, I can negate any effect that would destroy any monsters on the field. So, by sending my Blue-Eyes Shadow Dragon to the grave, I can block your Mirror Force."

A ray of golden light shot from Prime Material Dragon, and it intercepted the ray of light from mirror force, before breaking through and shattering the mirror.

"Now, since you interrupted me, Prime Material Dragon, attack Assailant!"

The golden dragon shot another beam of light out at the shadowy figure. Assailant shattered into pixels.

"I end my turn."

(R&P: 15200 ;; T&C: 15200)

"I draw." said Pergerine. "I activate my Return of the Monarchs. Now I summon Edea the Heavenly Squire. Her effect allows me to summon Eidos the Underworld Squire from my deck."

A feminine figure dressed in full plate from the waist up and a plate mail skirt stepped onto the field. (800 ATK) She prayed for a moment and a male figure in dark plate armor with a black cape appeared next to her. (1000 DEF)

"Now, due to my Field Spell, I can summon Ehther with a single tribute, so I sacrifice my face-down Dandylion to summon Ehther the Heavenly Monarch from my hand. And since I Tribute Summoned a Monarch, Return lets me add one to my hand, like my Mega Caius."

A heavenly figure seated on a shining throne appeared on the field. She wore plate mail that shone like the sun, and held a long gold and silver staff. (2800 ATK = 2500 ATK)

"Now, I can use Ehther's effect to send March of the Monarchs and Domain of the True Monarchs from my deck to the graveyard to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch from my deck."

A large dark figure in pale grey armor appeared on the field. His fingertips were pale red, and the eye slits in his helmet glowed with an evil red light. (1000 DEF)

"Now, Ehther will attack your Great Shogun, and thanks to my Field Spell, she gains 800 attack when she does so."

Ehther stood from her throne and pointed at Great Shogun Shien with her staff. A bolt of light shot from it and destroyed Shien.

(R&P: 15200 ;; T&C: 14400)

"I'll set one card and with that I end my turn, and Caius returns to my hand."

Caius vanished from the field as Connor drew a card.

"I chain The Prime Monarch to your draw. I return Domain of the True Monarch and March of the Monarchs to my deck to draw a card."

Connor looked at him.

"I activate Six Samurai United. I normal summon Kagemusha of the Six Samurai. Then, because I control a Six Sam, I can special summon Legendary Six Samurai Kizan from my hand. Now, since United has two counters on it, I can send it to the graveyard to draw two cards."

Connor drew two cards as the two samurai walked onto the field. (400 & 1800 ATK)

"Now, I activate Gateway of the Six Samurai, and since I control a Six Samurai, I can Summon Grandmaster of the Six Samurai from my hand."

An elderly looking man with black, seemingly robotic, armored arms and legs walked out onto the field. He wore an eyepatch over one eye, and held a katana. (2100 ATK)

Three more torches lit up in the Temple behind him, and the monsters their opponent's used grew even weaker. (G. Visonary 2600 ATK 2300 ATK, Ether 2500 ATK 2200 ATK)

"Now, I can remove two Bushido counters from Gateway to increase Grandmaster's attack by 500, and since Temple now has 6 Bushido counters, all of your monsters lose 600 attack."

Grandmaster seemed to prepare himself. (2100 2600 ATK)

"Now, Grandmaster will attack your Ehther!"

Grandmaster rushed forward and at the last moment executed a slash with his katana, completely bisecting both Ehther and her throne.

"Now, since Ehther is gone and you control no tribute summoned monsters, Kizan's effect activates. Since I control two other Six Samurai, his attack increases by 300 points. Kizan, attack Edea!"

Kizan lifted his sword. (1800 2100 ATK) Then he ran forward and cut Edea down.

"Then, I move into my second main phase and tune together Kizan and Kagemusha to summon Goyo Guardian."

A man appeared on the field that resembled a police officer from the Japanese Edo period. He held a jutte with a rope attached to one end.

"And with that I'll end my turn." Connor declared, looking at Ryalla.

(R&P: 12700 ;; T&C: 14400)

"I draw." Ryalla said, drawing with a flourish. He looked at his card and smiled a devilish smile. "And with this, I will completely destroy both of you. But first, my Visionary will destroy your Legendary Samurai!"

"They'll kill each other!" Connor shouted.

"Exactly," Ryalla smiled.

The jackal masked man stood up from his thrown and raised his golden sword. He and Shi En rushed at each other and cut at the same time, and stood for a moment with their backs to each other before they both shattered.

"And now that he is out of the way, I can do this!"

He placed a single card on his disk, and the fog behind him lifted revealing a large sandstone temple guarded my two massive statues resembling ancient pharoahs. Connor paled.

"I activate my spell card, the Hidden Temples of Necrovalley!"

Trey looked at the temple.

"Well, it looks impressive, but what does it do? I've never heard of that card."

"Trey, that card makes it impossible for us to special summon anything." Connor said with a worried look on his face.

"WHAT!? What do you mean we can't special summon anything?" Trey yelled.

"What he means is that while this card is on the field, no one can special summon any monster that isn't a Gravekeeper." Ryalla broke in.

"That… is bad. That is really, really bad," Max said.

"And I'm not done either! I'll pay 500 Life Points to activate Counter Cleaner! Now both our Chaos Zone and your partner's Temple lose all their counters, meaning that our monsters return to full strength!"

A strange device resembling the infamous Pot of Greed rolled onto the field. It started to suck air in through its nose and the fog rolling off of the Temple and the white vortexes were pulled into it before it vanished. (Edos 200 ATK 800 ATK;; Visionary 2500 ATK 3100 ATK)

Connor's eyes narrowed.

"Wait a second, no one uses that card." he said, "Unless they're building their deck to counter someone else's!"

"You stacked your decks against us!" Trey shouted, enraged.

"So what if we did? It's not our fault if you guys are so easy to counter. Really, a deck focused around counters and Special Summoning? It was almost too easy!" Ryalla shouted, laughing. "Now, I summon Gravekeeper's Ambusher! And with his effect I'll send your Eclipse Wyvern to the bottom of your deck, completely ruining his effect!"

A pale man wearing a black cloak with red trim stalked onto the field. In his hand he held a black kukri, and a multitude of weapons could be seen on the inside of his cloak. (1700 ATK 2200 ATK)

"Ambusher, get his Grandmaster!"

The cloaked man walked forward and vanished. He appeared behind Grandmaster and stabbed him in the back.

"And I think I'll end my turn here." Ryalla said, smiling.

(R&P: 12200 ;; T&C: 14300)

Trey drew. He looked at the card he drew a cursed when he saw Dark Armed Dragon.

"I can't… I have nothing in my deck that can destroy that Temple," Trey said. "I just drew the only thing I had that could, but you have to Special Summon him. Prime Material! Destroy his Ambusher!"

"Not so fast," Pergerine said quietly. "I activate Threatening Roar. You cannot attack this turn."

Trey stared at him. "I end my turn," he said.

Pergerine smiled and drew a card.

"I sacrifice Edos in order to summon Caius the Mega Monarch to the field."

A dark shadow fell on the field, and a figure that resembled Caius stepped out of it. It had the same pale grey armor, though it seemed darker, and had purple ethereal skulls floating around it. The horns on the helmet had grown much longer, and he had large blades protruding from his elbows. He had a cloak that seemed to be made of pure shadow. (2800 ATK)

"Now, normally I could banish one of your monsters, but since Edos was a DARK monster I can banish both your Goyo Guardian and your Prime Material Dragon. True, you gain more counters on Chaos Zone, but that will hardly help you now."

Caius lifted both of his hands, and the spirit of Edos appeared between them. It shifted into a large orb made of shadow, and then split in two. Caius threw one orb at Goyo Guardian and the other at Prime Material. The orbs hit and both monsters shrieked as they were consumed by shadows.

"And now, since the way is clear, Caius! Attack Connor!"

The giant monarch flew across the field like a shadow and slashed his claws across Connor's chest, knocking him to the ground. Connor, Max, and Trey were surprised to see faint rips along the front of Connor's shirt.

OW! What is this, some kind of Shadow Game? Connor thought.

"I'll set one more card, and end my turn."

(R&P: 12200 ;; T&C: 10500)

Connor drew one card, looked at it, and set it on the field.

"I end my turn."

"So happy to see you can't do anything against us!" Ryalla said with a smile. "I draw!"

"And now I'll play it! I activate Gravekeeper's Stele. This lets me retrieve two of my keepers from the graveyard. So I'll get Assailant and Visionary. And I'll summon Assailant to the field."

The shadowy figure with the curving blade appeared again. (1500 ATK 2000 ATK)

"Now! Both my Assailant and my Ambusher attack you directly! Go after Trey my friends!"

Both of the knife wielding Gravekeeper's ran towards Trey and stabbed him. Trey screamed in pain, and was surprised to see that the two knives the monsters held came away bloody.

(R&P: 12200 ;; T&C: 6300)

"What are you playing at!?" Trey yelled "Why are your monster's actually hurting us?"

Ryalla just laughed.

"I end my turn. Your smart. Take a guess, but to be clear, it isn't magic. This is no Shadow Game, and it likely won't kill you. At least not yet, it will be strong enough to do so soon."

Trey growled as he drew a card. His face lit up.

"I summon Snipe Hunter!" Trey shouted.

The little goblin holding a laser gun with a wheel numbered 1-6 leaped onto the field. (1500 ATK)

"Now, I discard one card and target your Hidden Temples! As long as the number doesn't come up 1 or 6, then it will be destroyed!"

Trey slipped his Dark Armed Dragon into his discard slot and watched as the Snipe Hunter spun the wheel on the gun and took aim at the Hidden Temple. When it stopped on the six, Trey just waved at Pergerine.

0

Max watched the duel in a mixture of fear and astonishment, as she saw the two best duelists she knew start losing horribly. As she watched, she couldn't believe they were maintaining their calm, but as she looked closer she could see they weren't. In a passing moment or two when their opponent's weren't paying too much attention to them she could see their expressions crack. Seeing this she was tempted to run. She knew the two of them wouldn't mind. What would be the harm?

No, she thought, I came here and I am staying here.

She looked back up at them, and thought a silent prayer to the heavens for them as they continued on.

0

Pergerine drew a card.

"Now, I doubt you could do anything against us at this point, but I would hate for a stray Mirror Force to turn this fight around. I activate Double Summon, which allows me to make two Normal Summons this turn. I summon Landrobe the Rock Vassal."

A small robed figure appeared on the field.

"Don't worry he isn't staying. I sacrifice him and summon Jinzo to seal your fate."

The infamous machine walked onto the field. (2400 ATK)

"Now, Caius will attack your Snipe Hunter, and Jinzo will attack Connor directly."  
Caius flew forward and cut the Snipe Hunter to ribbons with his claws, and Jinzo blasted Connor with a beam of mental energy.

"With that I end my turn, and your last turn begins."

(R&P: 12200 ;; T&C: 1800)

"Fine. I draw."

He pulled the card free from the top of his deck, and looked at it.

"We may be going down, but we are going down fighting! Go! Dark Hole!" he cried as he threw the card into his disk.

Unlike the last time the card was played, the familiar vortex that was normal for Dark Hole pulled all the monsters into it and vanished. The moment that the two Gravekeeper's were pulled in the Hidden Temples vanished.

"I end my turn." Connor said.

"And I draw!" Ryalla said. He looked at the card and smiled. "I summon Gravekeeper's Heretic."

A young, fit man with hair so white it almost glowed appeared on the field. He held a staff with a blue jewel embedded in the head. (1800 ATK)

"Now, since my heretic is immune to all card effects while Necrovalley is on the field, he unfortunately doesn't get the 500 point boost to his attack from my field spell. But it doesn't look like he needs it! Heretic! Attack Trey!"

The Gravekeeper rushed forward and clubbed Trey over the head with his staff.

(R&P: 12200 ;; T&C: 0)

Trey despite the incredible amounts of pain he was in, kept standing as the holograms faded. So did Connor, though he moved towards Trey and Max.

"Ha ha! We beat you! Now you die!" Ryalla said as he and Pergerine pulled out two laser weapons that looked much like the previous ones they had seen.

Connor had anticipated this. As the two of them opened fire he raised his gauntlets and summoned a shield to block the blasts. The two kept firing in a sustained beam, and Connor turned to face his friends.

"Go! I'll hold them!" he yelled over the hum of the plasma weapons.

"What?! Are you crazy?!" Max yelled.

Trey looked his friend in the eyes, Connor silently pleading with him. Trey closed his eyes and nodded to him.

"Max. We're going!" He told her.

"We can't leave him here! He'll die!"

Rather than let her continue, lest he be persuaded to stay, he reached out to behind her neck and grabbed at it, knocking her out. He picked her up, and turned one last time toward his friend. Connor looked back at him and nodded, a small grim smile on his face.

Trey ran back down the stairs, not looking back, and not stopping till he got to the car. He got in, started it and drove away, a few pained tears escaping his eyes as he turned his back on his best friend.

0

Once his friend was on his way, Connor kept adjusting to make sure that the shield was covering the two of them. Once they were out of sight The two aliens dropped their beams, and Connor dropped his gauntlets, his shield fluttering out of existence.

"How cute, you managed to let your friends escape. All you've really done is buy them time. Once we've killed you we will run them down like the vermin you are," Ryalla said tauntingly.

"Wrong. You won't be chasing them. I'll hold you here."

"Your confidence is amusing, boy," Pergerine said, "But enough is enough. Stand down and we will grant you a swift death."

Connor just stared at him. Then he closed his eyes.

"No. I will not let you past me, because I made a promise," he said, his voice rising in rage.

With his eyes still closed, he began trembling, but not in fear. In rage. His hands started moving, and he held them as if they were claws down by his waist.

"I told my friends I would hold you here, and I will do just that, even if it's the last thing I do!" he yelled.

He opened his eyes, and they looked so full of rage that they barely looked human. In truth, they looked the same as when Max had a gun held to her head. Connor was no longer in the building.

"GRAAAAAAAAHHH!" he screamed, in a voice that could not have been human.

He surged forward at speeds most humans wouldn't even be capable of normally, but when The Beast was out, his brain's muscle limiter shut down, making him much stronger. He slashed with his claws at Ryalla's head, but the alien melted into a red mass of liquid, slipping through.

Connor carried on with the momentum of that swing all the way down and leveraged into a handstand, spinning his legs in a wide arc kicking at Pergerine. Pergerine did the same as Ryalla (only green instead of red), and dodged past, but Connor used the spinning motion to twist out of his gauntlets, giving him better dexterity.

As he came down from the handstand, both of the aliens in liquid form tried to ensnare him but with near breakneck speed he dodged and jumped away from them. When he landed, he dug his hands into the ground, breaking through the rock and tore out a very large chunk (definetly breaking a bone or ten from the strain) and as Pergerine was readying to attack again in the shape of a wave, Connor hurled the small boulder sized piece of rock it him, scooping Pergerine's entire mass and sending him flying toward a nearby wall, with Ryalla's liquid form hesitating a moment at the sight.

Ryalla regained his composure and quickly struck again. But as he rushed towards Connor, the enraged human turned and clawed through his oncoming attack. Ryalla was stunned as someone digging even into their aqueous form was something his species hadn't encountered in over 17,000 years, and he hurriedly regathered himself so he could strike again, but as soon as he gathered himself, Connor was on him again.

The Beast that was controlling Connor clawed away at Ryalla so fiercely, he scattered bits of him. Now this was negligible damage, but with one mighty swipe, Connor tore free a huge amount of Ryalla's mass, damage equivalent to losing an arm.

In his terror Ryalla's liquid form shrunk away from his attacker, fearing his own demise. Unfortunately for Connor, in his bloodlust he had forgot about his other opponent. Pergerine had snuck up on him, and with a precision strike of condensed mass, knocked him out.

After a stunned moment, the two of them returned to humanoid form. Ryalla was indeed missing an arm, and the mass that was the missing limb had lost all ability to be rejoined with him.

"What the hell was that?!" Ryalla asked.

"I don't know. But I intend to find out a way to exploit it," Pergerine replied.

The green alien hefted the unconscious Connor and pressed a button on a machine he produced from his pocket. As he did, a light descended on them, and a moment later, they vanished.

0

CHAPTER END


	11. Chapter 10

So, It has been quite a while since I have made a post. Bad news to those that actually liked this story, but we are going to trash this story due to several reasons. Primary among those is I recently read back over what has been posted and have noticed many mistakes that, even if fixed, would altar the core of the story, and the other being a severe lack of discipline in posting on my part. The good news, for any that may have read this and liked it, is that in the relatively near future I plan to start writing on a new fic, with a (hopefully) better story line and plan on enforcing a bi-weekly update plan on my self. Given the time since the last actual update to this story i'm assuming (and hoping) that no one is still hoping for another chapter and that the fact that this story is dead is not news to anyone, but if so I do apologize. Sorry for any potential inconvenience.

-Packlord44

PS. I need a better username...


End file.
